Its not easy being queen
by LeannaFaye
Summary: All Elsa wants after the Great Thaw is some peace, but a food shortage that could only be prevented by re-establishing the trade with Weasletown is threatening Arendelle and Anna and her new guard are always up to no good. In addition to that, she has to deal with her Court Scientist Roland and his modern way of thinking, a troublesome foreign princess and revolutionary ideas.
1. Chapter 1

_**Choose wisely**_

Elsa was uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable actually, but Anna didn´t want to listen to her. To be honest, Anna pretty much _never _listened to her, but still, this was something entirely different. Her advisors, too, thought it to be a good idea, a good opportunity to show herself in public and strengthen the positive image of her that they were trying to establish as soon as the "early winter" had stopped. So now here she was, sitting next to Anna on the platform and watched a young man being thrown against the wooden fence of the little arena. The reason behind this was that Anna and all the advisors had in unity decided upon her getting a personal guard, and before she could have said no, Anna had already announced a public competition in the courtyard of the castle, in which everyone could participate. The winner would get a 14/7 job and only mediocre pay, but obviously especially Arendelle´s younger men were oblivious to that. So far, two people had mastered the course that she had created. The task was to knock off the guards, get around the giant snowman that Olaf had named Marshmallow and climb on top of a small ice tower to obtain a frozen mistletoe. The last few attempts hadn´t really been promising and Elsa guessed that it was not going to get better after another hour, but Anna insisted on three finalists. The queen thought herself right when the next young man entered. He was about eighteen, with tanned skin and dark blond hair that needed to be cut. He was tall, broad shouldered and dressed like your ordinary Arendelle citizen. She didn´t know what had him thinking he should take part in this competition after navy and army officers failed, just like sons of rich merchants or members of the gentry. He bowed into her direction and seemed to prepare himself for what was coming. It was three guards approaching him from three different sides. She just now realised the boy didn´t carry any kind of weapon with him, not even something to defend himself with. The first guard tried to put a stride, but the boy just sidestepped him and the guard fell to the ground. The two other guards now slowly paced toward him, and they were clever enough to prevent any possibility for evading. The boy hesitated for a second and then took to his heels. Some people in the crowd yelled angrily. But the boy wasn´t running from the guards, specifically, he was running _to_ something else. A spear, crossbow and crossbow bolts, as well as two ropes were leaned against the fence. The next part seemed to be easy. He took the spear to defend himself and knocked the guards down one by one. He then tied their feet together with one of the ropes. Next was the giant snowman, whom the boy now carefully approached. His trick was again quite simple but effective. He shot one of the bolts with one end of the second rope at Marshmallow, tied the other one to the fence and shot another few to get the snowman angry and all tangled up in the rope mess so he couldn´t move. "Really creative, that one, don´t you think?" Anna whispered. The youngster now aimed at the tower. He shot six bolts into the wall beneath the first platform and started to climb up. He then took the two last crossbow bolts, pushed them into the wall in front of him at circa speaking half a meters height, grabbed two others with his hands and climbed up. Well, actually once he stood on the bolts with his feet, he just had to pull himself up to the second platform, get to his feet and take the mistletoe. The ordinary boy who didn´t stand a chance did it. He jumped down to the first platform, then the ground and came toward them. He handed the mistletoe to a servant and bowed again with a huge smile. He was already leaving when Anna shouted: "Hey, wait! You´ve got to tell us your name!" "I´m sorry, I didn´t know. The name´s Robin Johanson, at your service." Now it was Elsa´s turn to speak up. "Mr Johanson, you have earned yourself a place among the three finalists of this competition and are therefore scheduled to return to the palace tomorrow morning for a meeting with myself and your two competitors." "Yes, of course, your majesty." He nodded at them and left the arena. Now Karlson, the royal butler, came forth and declared the competition to be over.

Elsa, Anna and Kristoff, who was of course sitting next to the princess, stood up, winked and then walked down the stairs to enter the palace. "This was sooo great, I think we should do this more often!" Anna declared. "Oh, oh, I got it! We are going to arrange a tournament for Elsa´s birthday! Or for my birthday!" "No!" Elsa objected intensely. "No tournaments! No big public parties! I thought we had agreed on that, Anna." Anna rolled her eyes. "Anna!" "Alright, I will never plan a giant, super fun surprise for you, ever." Elsa was about to continue the quarrel when Kristoff prevented the sisters fight to escalate. "So, Elsa, do you think your three finalists are qualified for the job, or was this just totally useless?" "Well," the queen began. "I haven´t really thought about it. What do you think?" "Well, that lordling looked a bit too smug for my liking, this officer guy seemed overly serious and the boy, well, he pulled of a good show and all, but how good is he in real life, and is he well-behaved enough to live in the palace?" "Aw, come on, it´s not like you were born into royalty, my dear boyfriend" Anna threw in. "Come on yourself, Anna, I was raised by trolls, I had a job and a family." "Maybe he has no family because of some tragic incident that happened to him when he was younger!" "Really? You seriously read to many books Anna!" "I´m going to go to my chambers now, if you will excuse me", Elsa said and took a different hallway then the others without them even noticing. She was tempted to go straight to bed, but Anna would surely miss her at dinner and would tomorrow go on about how she wasn´t eating enough.

Elsa waited for her guests´ arrival in the entrance hall where Anna and Kristoff soon joined her. The first one to arrive was the army officer, naturally wearing his green uniform. He was tall, broad shouldered, had dark hair, tanned skin and serious looking grey eyes. "Queen Elsa, Princess Anna, Mr Royal Ice Master." He took of his headpiece and nodded to them. He then placed himself somewhere a little off to the side and stayed silent. The next one to come was the boy, wearing a white shirt, brown trousers, boots and vest with green decorations. He bowed, lower in front of Elsa than the others, and said: "Your majesties." He too strolled off to the side and waited for the aristocrat. He entered the palace about ten minutes late and gave a somewhat excusing smile. Elsa was blinded by his bright orange clothing and Anna snickered quietly. "I´m sorry for the delay, but my horse made some problems and I had to organise another." Anna pulled out a parchment and a quill. "What are you doing there, Princess Anna, if I might ask?" He looked curious. "I note the first minus point for you. What if you have horse problems when my sister is in great danger, huh?" The lordling seemed baffled, the officer raised an eyebrow and the young boy smirked. "Actually, there was a change made to the original plan. It was decided that Princess Anna is more in need for a personal guard than I am, so you are now competiting to become her guard. Good luck."

"So, what do you think?" Elsa asked when she, Anna and Kristoff met to make a decision. "Well, I obviously don´t want this Alvarr guy to be my guard, I couldn´t stand having him around twenty four hours a day, I would surely be tempted to murder the stupid, arrogant, smug little brat", Anna explained. "What about Nils Anderson?" Kristoff asked. "I like him best, he has a family, though", Elsa stated. "I don´t see how that´s relevant, sorry." "He has two little children who can´t spent time with their father when he is busy guarding Anna the whole day. I don´t want to do that to a family." "Yeah, and besides that, he´s so deadly serious, I mean, does he even know how to laugh?" was Anna´s comment. "I don´t see how that´s relevant, either." "Well, it´s Robin Johanson, then. I have to admit, he does not seem like the perfect guard, but he is a very nice and sympathetic young boy." "Would you not say that, Elsa? You make it sound like he was ten or something, but he is pretty much my age", Anna demanded. "And I congratulate myself, my new guard is not only highly qualified but also not unpleasant to look at, not to forget funny, polite and respectful. I mean, the guy treated me just like the princess I am." Elsa and Kristoff shared confused looks. "Alright, what I meant with that is, that Alvarr jerk, I just now realise, he even has the name of a jerk, well, he just tried to impress and influence me and stuff, and this Nils, aka Mr Grumpyface, was all business and stuff, he didn´t even look at me or talk to me or something", Anna explained. "So Robin talked to you and was polite and didn´t look grumpy, and that tells you he is a thoughtful, attentive, sensitive person?" "I didn´t say that, but yeah", Anna replied as if that was totally obvious. "And he´s handsome." Elsa rolled her eyes and Kristoff looked kind of grumpy.

Robin was sworn in right the next morning, after he had been given a call that he did get the job. But before the ceremony he had a makeover done by the palace maids so that he would look presentable. He had his hair cut, took a warm bath and was then given a brand new uniform which he would exclusively wear. It was a shirt, tight green trousers, brown boots and gloves, a dark green belt and uniform jacket. The young man was really nervous now that he was about to be sworn in in front of the queen, her family, her advisors and some staff members. "Good luck", Gerda told him and then shoved him into the throne room. He passed the people standing on both sides of the room, knelt down in front of the queen and spoke his vows. "I swear to her majesty, Queen Elsa of Arendelle, that I will protect her sister, Princess Anna, from anything or anyone intending to do her any harm in whatever way possible, I pledge that I will always come to her aid if she needs protection, that I will be her loyal guardian who keeps her safe, who defends her life with his own, from now on until I am no longer needed." He looked up and smiled. "I accept your vows and your service. Now, stand up", Elsa demanded. He stood up and Princess Anna gave a bronze badge in shape of a flower to the Queen, who pinned it to his uniform jacket.


	2. Chapter 2

_**The older brother**_

"How is it having Robin around all the time?" Queen Elsa asked her younger sister. "It´s alright, quite funny, actually. I mean, he has an amazing sense of humour, you know, it´s really similar to mine" Anna told her. She liked her first day with Robin so far, he was fun to be with. "It´s good to hear that, Anna, because I´ve got to admit something. I decided to get you a guard instead of me not only because I can protect myself due to my powers, but also because I thought you might want to have a companion, someone to spend time with when I´m stuck in council meetings or paperwork. I was sure you would choose Robin, and as he was your age and he seemed nice I thought it might be a good idea." Anna smiled and then hugged her sister tightly. That was typical for Elsa, not to tell her what her true intentions were, but they would get over that eventually. "Thanks Elsa. You´re right, I don´t want to be alone anymore, and I think Robin and I are going to be good friends soon, and a friend is something I need, but that´s also what you need. I mean, you didn´t leave your room or talked to anyone since our parents died! That´s something, and I really don´t want you to feel lonely when I´m spending some time with Kristoff." "Oh Anna" Elsa smiled. That was just the moment Olaf came around the corner. "Hey, what´s up? Does somebody maybe need a warm hug? Because I love warm hugs!" The sisters started laughing. "Everything´s fine, Olaf" Elsa assured him. "And Anna, I´m never going to be lonely as long as Olaf is around." Anna snickered. "Sure, but you might want some human company at some point." "Your Majesty." Karlson the butler was approaching the two girls. He was working in the palace as long as Anna could remember, probably even before Elsa´s birth, and was really conservative about some things, for example relationships, which was why he didn´t particularly like Kristoff. "The council meeting with your advisors is about to begin" he declared. "Tell them I am coming, Karlson. I´m sorry Anna, but I´ve got to go." They shared one more sisterly hug and then Elsa made her way to the council chamber. "Robin?" Anna called. "Yes?" The boy appeared from behind the next corner. "Come on, let´s do some eavesdropping."

"No! No trade with Weaseltown!" Elsa declared confidently. "But, your majesty, we have to get food somewhere. The crops are estimated to be lower then anytime in the last hundred years due to the, uh, strange weather this summer. We have to act before a real food crisis develops. Hungry people are angry people, and angry people start riots, and riots are something we do not want any more than we want Arendelle´s citizens to starve" one of the royal advisors explained. "But there has to be some other way, some other trading partner!" "We are sorry, your majesty, but Arendelle does not usually import any food, so our trading partners are probably not going to be able to supply some. Weselton, on the other hand, is said to have been lucky with the weather this year, so they should have some surplus food we could buy." "And there is no other kingdom where there are estimated to be excessive crops?" Elsa asked her councilmen. She tried not to show it, but she was desperate for another solution. "Well, of course, but we would have to negotiate about the trading terms first, a delegation would have to come here for that, it is much more easy to just go with Weselton." "As long as there are other opportunities, we will not contact Weaseltown or do anything into that direction. The Duke insulted me and sent his men to kill me, and I wish to never lay eyes on him ever again" the queen stated. She would not allow that man to set foot into her kingdom again. "But-" "No!" Elsa slammed her hand on the table, which immediately started freezing. She was shocked. Things like that weren´t supposed to happen anymore, they were a thing of the past. "We thought you could control that now, your majesty" one of the advisors said. "I can, it is just that" Elsa hesitated. "Sometimes it just slips." "You should not let it slip when the delegations of our potential trading partners are here, it does not make the impression that you are very much in control." "I know! But there are no other magical people, it appears, and the only person I know who had some knowledge already told me everything he knows."

Anna and Robin were standing just outside the door, pressing their ears against it. Anna had been angry at the mentioning of Weaseltown, but now she was quiet and tense. "What about science, your majesty? These scientist people believe they can solve every problem and explain everything that exists on earth. Maybe a scientist could unravel the mystery of your powers." Now Robin tensed, too. This was his chance. "Are there any to be found here in Arendelle?" the queen asked. "No, your majesty, your father did not think it to be wise to have some of those nosy scientists running around here." "Well, then I think that is not an opt-" Elsa´s reply was interrupted when her sister and her sisters guard burst in. "I´m sorry for interrupting, your majesty, but Princess Anna and I were just passing by and I heard that it was said that there were no scientists in Arendelle" Robin justified himself. "So?" the queen wanted to know. "Actually, there is one" the boy claimed. "His name is Roland, he is the assistant of the Court Physician and, uh, he´s my brother. But I assure you, he really is a scientist, he went to an expensive school and all that."

"Don´t worry, it´ll be better by tomorrow, I promise. I will have a look on it again next week, but if something´s wrong, don´t hesitate to come earlier and let me check on that." Roland gave the elderly lady a smile and she smiled back at him. "Thank you, doctor" she said while he helped her get to her feet. "You are such a nice and caring young man." She took her cane and slowly walked out of the infirmary. The young physician sighed in relief. It was a lot less work now then it was several weeks ago, when the winter had just ended and many people had a cold or fever or the flew, but today was a busy day again. He thought he could take a short break now, but that was only until seconds later he saw Queen Elsa, her royal advisors, her sister and his brother all coming toward him. "Are you Roland Johanson, the Court Physician?" the queen asked. "Uhm, Assistant Court Physician, but yes, that´s me. Do you want me to get you the doctor?" "No, I am here to see you." "Well, your majesty, I´m really sorry, but I can´t see why" the young man explained nervously. Never had he spoken to someone as important as the queen before, even her butler seemed to see himself to much superior to ever talk to him. And why did she want to talk to him, anyway? The doctor was far more experienced in the art of healing, he had just finished school two years ago. "Because you seem to be the only scientist in the whole of Arendelle." "Well, that´s probably true. What could I possibly do for your majesty?" "I need a scientist, I will explain the details to you in private." She glanced at the other people in the room, telling them to leave. "Until we meet again for the next council meeting next week, your majesty" one of the advisors said and they all bowed and left.

"Me too?" Anna asked. "You too" her sister stated. "Oh man. You wouldn´t even be here right now if Robin and I hadn´t been eavesdropping!" "Eavesdropping? I thought you were just passing by." "Uh, yeah, uh, well, we-" "We go now" Robin declared and tugged Anna behind him. "We will talk about eavesdropping later, young lady!" Elsa shouted, which made the two leave even faster, and then smiled. "So, where were we?" "You wanted to inform me about my new job." He sure was nervous but he looked her directly in the eyes, which not a lot of people did. His were of the same dark blue colour as his brothers, but with a spark of green in them as well, like a dark teal. His dark auburn hair was cut rather short and he wasn´t as tall as his brother, probably about 5' 11''. "I want you to try to find out something about my powers" she explained. "But your powers are magic, your majesty. I highly doubt that science can explain magic." She shot him a glance that showed that this was not the answer she had expected. "I mean, I can of course try, run some tests, but they are very time consuming and probably won´t do any good. I have to admit, none of my experiments worked so far, and I´ve never discovered anything new or spectacular. I´m a decent physician your majesty, but counting on me is surely going to be a waste of time, sorry" the young man explained, now constantly looking at the floor. He seemed to be really shy, quite the opposite of his brother, which reminded her of herself and Anna. "Anything is better than nothing. Even if it is a failure, which I don´t believe it will be, we at least tried. Sometimes it´s just all about trying" the queen tried to cheer him up. Elsa was an expert on being miserable, after all. "So, are you willing to help me?" "Of course! I would be honoured to work for you, your majesty, if you want me to. I will start developing a series of tests immediately. What exactly do you want to explore? I mean, uh, what aspects do you want to know more about?" The young man pulled a sheet of parchment out of nowhere and snatched a quill. Now he was all excited and ready to start. "Do you want me to run tests on the heat-resistance of your ice, how cold you can possibly make it, just tell me and I will figure something out." He gave her a questioning look. "I don´t know, I am not familiar with science, I don´t know which test would make the most sense. Something basic, I think, I don´t really know much about my powers at all, besides that I can do the things that I have already done, I have gained all my knowledge through experience" Elsa explained and for the first time realised that she knew close to nothing about her powers at all. Roland nodded and noted something on the parchment. "Alright, then. When do you want me to start?" "As soon as possible." "Tomorrow?" "That would be fine." It would be an excuse to take a break from the paperwork she had to do. "You just have to send some servant to fetch me when you are ready, I´ll most certainly be in the infirmary" the physician told the queen. "Alright, I will see you tomorrow afternoon. Have a nice day" Elsa gave him a graceful nod, he bowed low and then disappeared into another hallway.

"You are gone for a few hours and when you come back, everything´s just entirely different. Like, your sister is trying to explain her powers with science. I mean, I didn´t even know science existed in Arendelle until you told me" Kristoff exclaimed. "Yeah, neither did one of us, but obviously there is. I mean, Robin´s brother has just come back from school one or two years ago, but he is a real scientist, he knows about physics and chemistry and stuff" Anna explained. "And as long as it helps Elsa, I don´t care." Kristoff nodded. Anna was still concerned about her sister a lot, although she wasn´t always showing it. "How´s Robin?" he wanted to know. "I like him, he´s nice, we´ll probably become best friends. Oh, come on, I am allowed to have male friends, as long as it´s platonic and all that." Kristoff smirked about that, he was not so sure Robin wanted to be just friends as well. "I don´t think he´s a challenge for me. He´s barely eighteen and only half-baked whereas I-" "You are a very manly ice harvester with unmanly blonde hair" Anna giggled childishly as she came closer to her boyfriend. Their faces were just inches apart when a voice sounded behind them. "No making out in the hallways, your highness, or I´ll have to report this to your sister" Karlson said. "Oh Karlson, we were just kissing, nothing scandalous. I mean, I´m pretty sure you can kiss someone without consequences even if you´re not married." Karlson´s look clearly showed that he was of a different opinion, but he kept his mouth shut and just shot the couple a warning glance. Kristoff was pretty sure the old butler disliked him in particular. "Sometimes living in a palace just totally sucks" Anna complained.

"Your majesty?" "Yes, please come in." Elsa sat behind her desk doing paperwork when Roland entered the room. "Welcome to my study" the queen greeted her Court Scientist. "Shall we begin?" "Yes, your majesty. I think it is best if we would just stand in the centre of the room, not to close to the furniture." She stood up and came toward where he was standing. "Alright, Roland, I will just do what you tell me to." As the queen, this should be somewhat strange to her, but she had for years followed her parents every order and just recently started making her own decisions. "So, could you make some snow and some ice, please?" the young man, who was holding a notebook and a pen, asked. "Alright. And now make the snow ice and the ice snow, if possible." It was, which was something she had never really cared about, but he noted it in his book. "Can you also make it thaw so it becomes water?" "I don´t think so, but I can try." She focused on some warm thoughts like Anna´s hugs and hot chocolate but the snow and ice just vanished. "Interesting, your powers seem to be tied to the cold, and not to the element water. You see, ice of course is just water that is solid because it´s so cold. If your powers were tied to the element water, then you should be able to make and control water and steam as well, but obviously you aren´t, you can only control ice and snow" he explained to her. "So that is how science works? You do things, observe them and think about what that tells you about it?" He looked like she had just found out about his most embarrassing secret. "Well, yes, that is the basic thing about science, and pretty much everyone can learn that with some time. Everybody can be a scientist, really." "Maybe, but there´s surely more to it than just logical thinking" Elsa stated. He seemed to fear that now that she had found out how science worked, he wouldn´t be needed anymore. "Indeed. There are lots of methods and chemicals and experiments you have to know about and how to perform them, and you need some knowledge about the basic rules of science. And patience" he explained and seemed to be a little more optimistic now. "Then Anna wouldn´t be a good scientist at all" Elsa told him. "Neither would Robin" Roland replied. They shared a smile and got back to their work. "So, does it make a difference to you whether you make ice or snow?" She had to think about that. Did it make a difference to her? She didn´t know, she never really consciously used her magic a lot, and she certainly never tried to make observations about it. She recalled what she had done moments ago. "No, it doesn´t." He nodded and scribbled something into his book. "Okay, there is one last question, your majesty, then we will be finished." Elsa was surprised of this statement, she had been sure this would take a bit longer and be an excuse to do a lot less paperwork than she should. "Well, basically, it´s two. How cold can you possibly make it, and do you ever feel cold?" Another thing she had to think about. When she was up on the North Mountain, she definitely wasn´t feeling cold, and that had been the coldest place in a frozen kingdom, so she was very sure the cold had never bothered her in any way, but how cold she could make it? It was not as if she had ever tried that. "I don´t remember feeling cold ever in my entire life, but I can not tell you how cold my powers can possibly make it, I´m sorry" she explained and felt stupid for knowing so little about the powers she had since she was born. "You don´t have to be, I mean, you always tried to not use your powers, how would you know that? It must be quite a change for you to openly use and try to find out more about them. But that´s what I´m here for, right?" His voice grew fainter as he spoke, but at the last words, he looked up from the ground into her face and smiled at her shyly. "But I´m afraid now I have got another question. Do you feel heat? And if you do, do you feel it in the same extend as your sister, for example?" Heat. She didn´t think she felt heat a lot before, but that could be due to the fact that she had always accidentally frozen, or at least cooled, everything that came close to her. She had only recently discovered what warmth felt like, due to Anna´s hugs, hot chocolate and warm bathing water. It had been refreshing to be able to take a bath again, as she had to stop when she started to freeze the water solid. "Yes, I do feel it, but I never compared it to how Anna did. Wait, there is one thing. Anna always drinks her chocolate sooner after she gets it, when I thinks it´s unbearably hot." That felt good, actually knowing something that could be helpful. "Alright then, your majesty, I propose the following approach: Tomorrow, we will test your ability to cool a room down and not get cold and how you respond to heat, if that goes with your plans" he explained. "It does not interfere with my plans in any way, so I will just have someone call you." "Yes, of course, your majesty. There is one last thing, though. These tests may have results that" he bit his lip and gave her a look that she could not really sort in. "That could be used against you. Trying to define the nature and limitations of your powers will not only surface your strengths but also your weaknesses and I feel obliged to inform you about the danger further tests and experiments could possibly become." He was right, of course, and she again felt silly for not thinking about this. The question was: What was the greater danger, her not knowing about the nature of her powers, or others knowing their limitations? "I appreciate your concern of my well-being, Roland, but I need to know more about my powers. We will continue tomorrow." He nodded and bowed and left the room so she was alone again.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Getting to know each other**_

"_Now darling, don´t you forget how lucky you are" a woman told a little boy. "Yes Mama" he responded. "Then have fun." She kissed him on the forehead and winked him goodbye as she went down the hallway, looking back at the door when she reached the corner, but her son had already entered the room. _

_The boy was amazed by the sight that the inside of the room offered. There were hundreds, no, thousands of books, all standing in high shelves, waiting to be opened. He had never seen that many books in his life although he had been to libraries before. He slowly made his way to the closest shelve and took a look at the books there. They told old legends and myths about magic and ancient stories. He loved those books the most, so he just grabbed as many as he could possibly carry over to the armchair by the window. He was just reading the story of Brandr and the mistletoe when he heard a voice behind him. "What are you doing in here?"_

"Good morning Anna!" Elsa greeted her cheerfully. Far to cheerful for this time of the day. "Why do we have to stand up this early again?" she mumbled. "First of all, we are not, it´s nine o'clock and we do stand up and have breakfast at this time because this is the time we always stand up. Not to late, not to early. Actually, I am awake since seven." "Seven?!" "Yes. I am the Queen, I have duties, remember?" Elsa said and reached for the jam. "Whatever, I couldn´t stand up that early, it would kill me." "Well then it´s good that I´m the older one, right? Where is Robin, by the way? Shouldn´t be with you since the moment you left your room?" "He should but I´m only having breakfast, I think I can spare him right now. He´s probably just overslept." Elsa seemed to not approve of such behaviour, but Anna understood him. What she wouldn´t give for another hour in bed. She was distracted in her thoughts when Robin entered the room, looking like he´d been in a hurry. "I´m sorry, your majesty, I´ve overslept half an hour without any good excuse. I promise you it won´t happen again" he explained. "Well, I accept your apologies. You may sit down and eat something, as I am convinced that you did not have the time at home" Elsa declared. "Thank you." He chose the chair next to Anna and grabbed two thick slices of white bread. "Why didn´t your brother wake you up in time?" the queen asked. "He-" the boy swallowed to not speak with his mouth full. "He left at half-past seven this morning to prepare something, my mother told me. Didn´t even eat something." Anna looked at her sister. She was sure the young scientist was preparing something that had to do with their experiments. Anna had insisted on taking part in them as well but Elsa didn´t want her to, for whatever reason. "Well, we can´t have that now, can we? Kai, call for Roland to come here. So, you are living with your mother, then?" the older sister asked and changed the subject. "Yes, she owns a little house not far from the palace. She used to work here, you know, as a maid, but now she´s working in the orphanage" Robin told them and stuffed some more food into his mouth. Anna chuckled at the funny face he made into her direction. "Aren´t members of the staff usually living in the palace?" Anna asked. People like Kai, Gerda and Karlson were there all the time, she couldn´t imagine them not being around. "Yes, they are, but they don´t have to, if it is not necessary" her sister explained. "You eat at home, I guess?" "Breakfast and dinner, we have lunch in the kitchen with the staff. Well, I have, I don´t know about Roland." This was the moment the former entered the room. "You called for me, your majesty?" he asked. "Indeed. Your brother told me you haven´t had breakfast yet. Is that correct?" "Yes, your majesty." Roland surely "majesty-d" her sister a lot more than his brother did. Why was that? Was he afraid or something? Uncomfortable? Well, maybe that was the proper way to address her, she was after all the queen, and Robin was just not as skilled in etiquette as his brother. He was a lot more fun, though, the older one seemed kinda pessimistic with his pale skin and less muscles and serious face. "Then sit down and eat something" Elsa demanded. He nodded, seated himself opposite of his brother and took two slices of bread and some honey. The whole situation felt somewhat odd. Not to Anna herself, but obviously to the others. "Er, Elsa, what are you doing today?" she asked. "Paperwork and then I will meet up with Roland to run a few tests." She reached for the jam jar but Roland´s hand got there first, though he pulled it back as soon as he saw her´s. "No, it´s alright, go ahead. I probably shouldn´t eat that much jam and chocolate and things like that anyway, I started to gain weight" her sister explained and pulled back her hand as well. That was true, Anna just realised, her sister wasn´t as skinny as before. The scientist mumbled something she couldn´t understand. "What did you say?" Elsa asked politely. "I said that you are still pretty skinny and with a food crisis likely to cause starvation that is the the last thing you should care about." He blushed and stared at his plate. "I´m sorry if I have offended you, your majesty. I should better go" he added and got up. "You didn´t" her sister replied much to Anna´s surprise. Usually, when she was around the staff, she was acting all regal and stuff. "I appreciate it when people have the courage to tell me the truth, you know." He sat back down. "Go on." He stared at her in awe, was speechless for a moment, but then he started to talk again: "Back at the time of the coronation, you looked like you might be sick, you know, skinny and pale and never going outside and all that. Now, you look a lot more healthy, you know. Still pale and slender but in a different way. I mean, to people like you skinny might be a fashion ideal or something, but for ordinary people it´s nothing positive but negative, skinny means hungry, and has nothing to do with being a beautiful, graceful and desirable person." His cheeks were bright red which made it look like his head might explode any second now. "I think what my brother wants to say in his awkward way is that some of those bratty upper-class guys might only like skinny girls, but most guys prefer girls with curves, you know, hips and stuff, not those skeletons who might break if you hug them to tight" Robin said. Anna was pretty convinced that wasn´t exactly what his brother had wanted to say but the part about having a positive body image and that being skinny might not be the best thing after all was probably part of the message.

Embarrassing was the one word that came to his mind thinking about the morning. He had been upset about the queen´s little exclamation there and then Robin had shown off his slightly inappropriate manners and everything had gone downhill. And now he was preparing for experiments that said queen would take part in. "Roland?" Kai, one of the older servants, opened the door. "Queen Elsa is ready and wants you to come." He left and the young man packed up his things and carried them to her chambers. "Hello Roland, please, come in." He sat his bags down and just stood there and watched. She rose from her chair behind the desk to meet him. "Before we begin I wanted to apologize for what happened in the morning" he said. "I don´t know what for. For your critical point of view on body images and ideals? I don´t think that is something you have to apologize for. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that. I felt really superficial when you made your opinion clear to us and I-" "You don´t have to justify yourself to me, your majesty." Of course she doesn´t, she is the queen, she certainly knows that, idiot. "But I want to. I want you to understand why I said that. We will spend quite some time together, you and me, and I don´t want you to have a false impression of who I am. So, when I was younger I-" her voice fainted for a moment. "I was struggling with my powers a lot and I- I didn´t want to be like that, I didn´t want to be different. To me, being different was imperfection, it was a flaw." She made a short break there, most likely to think about what to say next. He was sure she had never talked about this to anyone else before, except maybe her sister, which was of course entirely different than telling him. He was a stranger to her so he didn´t understand why she was telling him in the first place. Not that he didn´t want to know more about her, but she seemed to be a very introverted person and such people usually didn´t speak about their troubled past on the second meeting. Maybe she remembers a little voice in his head said. No, she doesn´t, if she did she would have brought that up already. "But as my parents older daughter and heiress to the throne, imperfection was not an option, so I tried to cover it up. Cover up the magic, cover up the curse. Conceal, don´t feel. A façade of perfect manners and good looks, of the perfect girl to give my parents what they deserved, and to hide the truth, the ugly, magical, dangerous truth." By now, she was clearly upset, walking up and down the room, then she suddenly stopped and looked at him. "I got it all wrong. Covering up who I was, who I am, is not making things better. Lying to oneself doesn´t help. Acceptance is the only way to make your peace with it. So someday, I let it all go. I wasn´t that stupid lonely teenager anymore, I was the queen and being different was nothing to be ashamed of anymore. It made me feel better and it made me stronger. But although the past is in the past, old habits die hard and I sometimes still feel like the girl who was locked up in her bedroom, feeling alone and unloved and unworthy. I mean, I don´t even know why I told you that!" She wiped one tear of her face and smiled a weird smile. So that´s what she´s been trough. How could he ever do that to her.

Why did she tell a random young man all about how she felt back then? She had talked about it with Anna before and Anna obviously wasn´t the right person for that, she just started to apologize for what happened and promised she would always be there for her, but talking to someone who was barely more than a stranger? He seemed oddly familiar though, like she had known him for a long time, which was of course stupid. She didn´t have any friends, not even before the- the accident, she only had Anna. And then nobody at all, just her room, nobody to be seen. He surely thought she was just another overly emotional woman. Or that she was crazy, because who tells a person you just met two days ago things like that? "I don´t know why, your majesty, but I hope I will prove myself worthy of the trust that you have just shown me" he said. Elsa looked right into his face. He seemed to be honest about that. "Shall I- Shall I start with the experiments now, or would you prefer to do that tomorrow? I wouldn´t mind." The experiments, of course, that was why he was here, after all. He was a scientist and also a doctor. People certainly told him weird stories about their lives all the time. But he feels honoured by your trust a thought flashed trough her head. Maybe he likes you. Maybe he did, maybe he could be the friend Anna wanted her to have, the person she could talk to when her sister was busy with her love-life. He seemed to be a nice, smart and sensitive young man and if she thought about it, even if there were a dozen scientists in Arendelle, she would have still chosen him. She didn´t know why, but he had something about him that made him especially sympathetic. "Your majesty?" his voice sounded concerned. "We will do these experiments now" she decided. "So, what have you planned?"

"_What are you doing in here?" The boy immediately turned his head into the direction the voice came from. There was a girl standing in the doorway to the second part of the library. "Are you even allowed to be here? I don´t think you are" she said. The boy was fascinated. This was the prettiest girl he had ever seen and surely ever would see. He adored her bright blonde hair, her blue eyes and even the raised eyebrow. "I am allowed to be here" he managed to tell her. "And who did allow you? I´m Princess Elsa, the future Queen of Arendelle, so you should better answer me." "It- It was your mother. She told my mother I could stay here for the afternoon while she is working." "So your mother is one of the maids?" she asked and looked a lot friendlier. "What´s her name?" "Freya." She nodded. "What are you reading?" "Norse stories" he explained and slightly blushed. "I like those, they are interesting. Who are you reading about? Thor? Most boys like Thor, I think, because he´s so strong and all that" the princess wanted to know. "No, about Brandr and how Lady Frigg made all the animals and plants promise to never hurt him but-" "But she forgot the mistletoe" she finished. "I know that story. Do you know the one about Lady Sif´s golden hair?" "Sure! So one day Loki, the god of mischief, wanted to..." _

_When his mother came to fetch him and her mother accompanied her to look for her daughter, the boy and his new friend the princess were sitting next to each other with their backs against one of the shelves and discussed which one was their favourite fairytale. His mother looked worried, but the queen smiled. "You have made a new friend, I see" she said, to none of them in particular. "Yes Mama, this is Roland" her daughter declared cheerfully. "I know that, I allowed him to come to the library. I heard he is a clever young boy?" "Yes he is, cleverer than those stupid boys who visited us some time ago." A delegation of foreign diplomats had just visited a few weeks ago and the king and queen had hoped that Elsa might befriend one of their children, but the two boys closest to her in age were rather wild and loud and Elsa had disliked them. "Well, then he is invited to come here whenever he wants to" the queen said. The boys face lit up like a candle. "Thank you your majesty!" he replied. "But now it´s time for your French lesson, my dear. Say goodbye to your new friend and then off with you." "Au revoir, Roland!" Elsa bade him goodbye and exited the room, but not without winking gracefully before she closed the door. _


	4. Chapter 4

_**Hot and cold**_

„_Roland?" „Yes" „Do you know how to dance?" Elsa asked. "No, I don´t" he told her and blushed. "Why?" "Because I started to learn how to dance today" she explained. "Oh, okay." The young boy seemed to be unsure whether this was good or bad news. "Do you think you will learn this too?" she wanted to know. "I don´t think so" he replied. "We learn very much different things in school than you do." She grimaced. "This is so silly. I mean, why don´t you learn how to dance? What if I want you to accompany me to a ball? You can´t accompany me to balls if you can´t dance!" she complained. "Well, I´m not so sure whether people would actually want me to accompany you to balls" the boy stated. "I guess so, but that´s not my problem. My problem is that you just can´t dance! Wait, I could show you, right?" She gave him a questioning look. "Yes, I´d say so." Elsa smiled and pulled him to his feet. They had been sitting in the library again, reading. "Uhm, Elsa?" "Yes?" she said while trying to recollect the details. "How are you even learning how to dance? I mean, you´re only eight years old so your teacher must be really small." She started laughing. "I don´t have a teacher, my mother is showing me and you´re right, she is quite a bit to tall but she just kneels down." "But how do you move around, then?" "We don´t, we just stay at that one spot. Mama says I will be at least sixteen when I attend my first ball, so we have plenty of time left to practice the actual movements when I´ve grown" she explained as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. Roland, on the other hand, was confused, because he of course didn´t realise that Elsa was not really learning how to dance, her mother had just shown her some basic things and they had twirled around a bit. "Now, take my right hand with your left and then put your right hand on my back" she demanded. The boy looked pretty nervous but he did as he was told. "And now just do what I do, okay?" It was, of course, a bit of a disaster, and the only thing they actually did was stepping onto each other´s feet and complaining about the other stepping on their feet._

"Shall I do the cold or the heat experiments first?" Roland asked. It didn´t matter to her, but he might want to get cold first and then warm again. "I think we should start with cold" Elsa told him. He nodded and opened his bag. It contained a thick wool sweater, a winter coat and a knit scarf, hat and mittens, all matching the colour of his eyes. "I thought it might be best if I brought this along so I could actually participate" he explained. She watched him as he pulled the sweater over his head which left his hair a bit messy. "You can start now, if you wish to, your majesty." She first had to recollect the memories of how to actually do that on purpose, it had only ever been an accident. No, it hadn´t, actually. When she and Anna were still children, she made it snow in the throne room so they could play. But had it been cold there? She didn´t think so, Anna never wore any winter clothing. On the other hand, Anna had been five years old, so if she was cold, she wouldn´t have noticed. She decided to go with making it snow, which should have some effect on the temperature. She tried to remember how she did it when she was a child. Now that she thought about it, she had better control over her powers back then than she had now. _Fear will be you enemy. _That sentence had always been understood as others being afraid of her, but it was also being afraid of herself. Letting go certainly helped but you couldn´t just wash the damage of thirteen years of conceal, don´t feel away in a few days. When she looked around the room again, it was covered in ice and snow. Love thaws the ice, unpleasant thoughts made it stronger and it was then that her powers went out of control. Roland was now wearing his full winter gear. "All right, now I´m going to have a look at the temperature" he said and pulled out a thermometer. She bent over to have a look at it. -10 degrees Celsius. "Okay, I take it that you are not cold" he then added with regard to her dress. "No, I´m fine" she told him. He nodded, noted this in his book and seemed to think for a moment. "Can you make it colder?" he asked. She could, she was sure of that, but how? "I could, but I don´t really know how to do it" she admitted. "Well, how did you do it before?" He gestured to the frozen parts of the room. "I thought about how I made it snow as a child" she explained. "It triggered some bad memories." He looked at her with concern. "I´m sorry for that. Do negative emotions trigger your powers?" "No, they don´t! I mean, it only makes them harder to control. When I was very young, shortly after the accident, I only froze things when I was scared or upset or sad, but later, it went out of hand. In retrospect I realise that this was caused by my state of mind these days. As I told you, that wasn´t really a happy time of my life." His face was full of compassion and he seemed to try to cheer things up. "What if you just concentrate on making it cold? Maybe that works" he suggested. "We can at least try."

He was sorry, so very sorry for her. He had been her friend and he let her down. It´s all your fault, you should have been there for her. He gritted his teeth when the temperature dropped below –20 degrees and further. He started to shiver. Arendelle temperatures usually never dropped below -16° in the city and -22° in the surrounding countryside. How stupid was he even to ask the snow queen to freeze the room he was in. It was cold, very cold. "Roland, are you all right?" Elsa asked him. "Sure, it´s okay, I´m fine" he said with chattering teeth. "Don´t lie to me, I know you´re cold. You leave, now, and give me the thermometer, I will have a look at it" she ordered. "Yes, your majesty." He took the bag that he had stored his clothes in and left the room. In the hallway outside, it was terribly warm. Olaf the snowman came around the corner the moment he sat down his bags. "Hey Roland, have a nice day with my Mama" he said, hurried around the next corner and left the young man a little confused. He got rid of his winter gear as soon as possible to cool himself down a bit, as a thick sweater made it even warmer. He had just stuffed it all into his bag again, when the door opened. "Roland?" Elsa was standing in the doorway holding the thermometer. "It cracked" she said and something in her voice was different. He made one step toward her and saw that the part of the thermometer that had contained the mercury was broken. When he came closer, he realised that it must have happened while she was holding it as blood became visible in the palms of her hands. "Oh my god, I´m so sorry. I forgot to tell you this might happen, mercury freezes at -39°C and now you cut your hands. Let me have a look at it" he said and took another step forward. He then took her hands carefully and turned them around so he was facing the palms. The thermometer fell to the floor. The soft pale skin was cut at several places and bleeding, but nothing severe. See what you did there? Someone was hurt because you are not good enough in your job. It´s all your fault. He shoved this thoughts aside and tried to remember where he could get bandages. His bag, he had his doctor´s bag with him because he had filled some of the supplies up at home. "I´m going to bandage this right now, I have the right materials in my bag over there" he explained and carefully pulled her back into the cold room and to the spot where he had left his bags. Roland then quickly opened one of them, pulled the bandages, a bottle and a knife out and rose to his feet again. "I´m afraid this is going to burn now, but I´ve got to disinfect the cuts first."

He was right, it burnt, and he seemed to be very unhappy about it. He then bandaged her hands carefully. She wasn´t even sure this was necessary, but he was the physician so he knew best. When he was finished he took a moment to check on his work again. "I am so very sorry, your majesty. I understand if you do not want to continue to work with an incompetent amateur like myself and apologise for my stupid mistake." His cheeks were burning again, she could see it. She just shook her head and smiled. "Things like that happen. You don´t have to apologise to me all the time, Roland. I have chosen you as my Court Scientist and I am not going to change my mind on that" she declared.

He was amazed by how friendly she was dealing with some stranger after people had turned on her and called her a monster just for having magic. "Thank you" was the only thing he could say to that. "I will come back tomorrow." He started to collect his things. "I am certain we are not finished yet" she spoke and he turned his head. "We agreed on testing my reaction on heat today." He bit his lip. "This is correct but due to your injuries you should better rest." "Injuries? Those are just small cuts, I think I can handle that. We will continue" she told him. He nodded. "Let me just make a call" he said and went to the door. He needed something hot to do his experiments with, something that had been heated a short time ago. "Lotta?" he called. A girl appeared from behind a corner. "Could you fetch me the water now, please?" he asked and she nodded. He had spoken to her in the morning and she had agreed to help him. As one of the maids, she had far better access to hot water than he did which made things a lot easier. "We will be able to start any minute now" he said. The young woman entered the room with two buckets of water only minutes later. He had met the seventeen year old girl with the ash blonde hair and green eyes at her first day in the palace a few weeks ago. He had bumped into her while hurrying back to the infirmary from an emergency in the city and she had spilled her cleaning water over him. "You are one of the new maids, right?" Elsa asked. Lotta seemed to be taken aback by the queens question and needed a second to answer. "Yes, your majesty." "How are you doing? I hope you like working here." The girl nodded. "Yes your majesty, it is a very good job" she answered. "Thank you, Lotta" Roland said when she left the room. "You´re welcome" she replied and smiled. "So, what is it we are going to do next?" Elsa wanted to know. "Well, these buckets are filled with water. I´m going to measure how warm it is with my other thermometer and then we will have a look at how you react to it" he explained. This must´ve sounded really boring, because it was. Most people believed that science was a cool thing to do, putting two chemicals together to make something explode or something like that, but it was actually not very interesting most of the time. He put the thermometer in both buckets and wrote down the temperatures. "All right, now, if you would put your hand into the first bucket, please." She stepped forward and stuck her hand into the water. One of the muscles in her face twitched. "How is it?" he asked. "Warm, really warm. It would be good for a nice warm bath, I think" she told him. That was really strange, but not entirely surprising. The water had a temperature of 25° Celsius, average bathing water was about 32-37° Celsius. He thought about possible burns a second to late, she had already touched the water. "Ouch" she pulled her hand back as fast as she could. "This is torrid!" she complained. "How hot is this even?" "It´s only 38° Celsius, normal people don´t react to such temperatures that violently, to them, it´s just a bit warm. See." He stuck his hand into the water. Sure, it was warm, but that was it. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Of course, I think I was just surprised" she replied. "Do you want to try again?" This might clarify whether it had really just taken her by surprise or that she was reacting to heat in a more sensitive way. She stretched out her hand into the water. This time, she didn´t say a thing, but her body was tense. After a few seconds, she pulled her hand back out. He took the book he noted all his observations and the results in and noted _High heat sensitivity, keep away from hot things_, which was of course not a very elegant way to say it, but notes had to be kept short. "Was that it?" He looked up at her and nodded. "I will go now." He started to pack up his things again and headed for the door. It was time to end this very weird and awkward day. "Roland." "Yes." He turned around so he was facing her. "There is nothing you have to apologise for. This day was abnormal in many ways, but I appreciate you and your work as much as I appreciate you as a person." Was he fantasising or did her cheeks slightly blush at that. She then turned around and sat back down behind her desk. "Until next time, your majesty" he bade her goodbye.

_Something wasn´t right. Roland had been in the library since three-thirty, the time they had met for four months now, and an hour later, Elsa was still not there. Just like yesterday, and the day before that. Suddenly, someone opened the door. The boy jumped to his feet and he was right, it was Elsa. "There you are! You had me worried, Elsa, I´ve been waiting for you since half past three and you just didn´t come!" he exclaimed. The princess looked at him in a strange way, almost as if she wasn´t happy to see him. "You shouldn´t be here, Roland" she said. "Elsa, we meet here everyday" he replied confusedly. "You shouldn´t be here. Why are you here?" she asked her voice shaking. "I-I´m allowed to be here, remember. Elsa, is-is something wrong?" The boy seemed to be very concerned for his friend. "Yes, something is wrong, you shouldn´t be here!" she shouted and then started sobbing. "Hey, Elsa, it´s-it´s alright." He came closer. "It´s alright, you just need to tell me what´s wrong. Has it something to do with your parents closing the gates and reducing the staff? My mama still works here, and nobody said I wasn´t allowed to come here anymore, so I guess I still am" he said and then reached out with his arms to hug her. "No, don´t touch me!" she said and jerked back. "Okay, okay, I won´t hug you if you don´t want me to, I just thought you might need a little comfort" he told her. "Because, you don´t look good. I mean, you still look good, better than good, but you don´t look happy, you look sad and I don´t think you slept a lot in the last few days." She just nodded. "You wanna tell me?" She shook her head. "That´s fine, you don´t have to. It´s not like I´m not going to be your friend anymore." "You wouldn´t be my friend anymore if I told you" she whispered. "Yes I would! Whatever it is, I´ll never stop being your friend" he declared adamantly and she looked at him in a slightly hopeful way. "If I told you, you would be afraid of me" she said. "I´m never going to be afraid of you, Elsa, I´m your friend. I know you, you know me, and you´re my friend too, so why would I be afraid? You- you still are my friend, right?" he asked in an unsure voice. "Of course I am! It´s just, something happened and it changed my life completely and it´s really terrible and I´m afraid that, if you find out, you won´t want to be my friend anymore" she explained. "Just as I said, I´ll always be your friend" he ensured and made her smile. "Now, how about I read one of your favourite stories to you?" "I think I´d really like that."_


	5. Chapter 5

_**AN: I just wanted to say thank you to the people, I think there are 14 or 15, who read this story. **_

_**Feel free to write a review, the one that I got really encouraged me. **_

_**What really happened**_

_It was Roland´s ninth birthday and he was excited. He had gotten a new book from his parents and a bar of chocolate from his Gran. He was now sitting in the palace library again, book at home, chocolate with him, waiting for his friend. A few minutes later, the princess entered the room. "Sorry I´m late, but Anna had one of her fits again and they had to get her away from my door and into her room first" she explained. "You shouldn´t do this to her, she must be feeling really bad" the boy said. "Roland, you know very well why we can´t do that." "No, actually, I don´t. You never told me" he replied. She took a deep breath, like she had to make herself do something she didn´t want to do. "I will tell you now" she said. "I didn´t mean to pressure you to tell me, if you don´t want to, you don´t have to" he assured her. "I know. I´m going to tell you because I want to, and because you deserve to know. You´re my friend, and friends don´t have secrets" she clarified. "So, the night before I didn´t come to meet you for the first time, the northern lights were bright and Anna couldn´t sleep, so she woke me up so we could play. We went to the throne room because it is so big, and I used my powers to make it snow. At some point, Anna was on top of a snow bank and then jumped onto another. We thought that was a fun game, so she hopped from snow bank to snow bank. But she-she-she just got too fast for me, and then I slipped and I-I just wanted to help, I swear, I just didn´t want her to fall down." At this point, the girl was crying and her friend looked at her compassionately. He put his arm around her shoulder. "It´s alright, Elsa" he said. She wiped her sleeve over her eyes, gave him a sad smile and continued. "But I slipped and the blast went into the wrong direction and hit Anna´s head. I screamed for my parents to come, Anna was unconscious. And cold, terribly cold. But my Papa, he knew what to do, he always knows. We went to see some magical trolls living in a not too far away valley. One of them said he could help Anna, but this includes that she isn´t allowed to know about my powers. And the troll also said that-that people will be afraid of my powers, afraid of me" she finished. "And you thought if you told me I would be afraid of you, too?" She nodded, but he just smiled. "Oh Elsa, for the cleverest person I know you can be really stupid at times" he said. Elsa looked at him. "You´re my best friend, Roland. I was afraid of what you might think of me, that you might not-" she didn´t finish the sentence. "Want to be your friend anymore? Elsa, you´re my best friend too and I always will be yours, I promise" he declared and put a hand onto his chest, right where his heart was. "I´m sorry I ruined your birthday, Roland" his friend whispered in return. "But I´ve got something special for you." She kissed him on the cheek. "Happy Birthday." That was the moment the Queen entered the room._

Robin was strolling trough the castle and he was bored. Princess Anna had sent him away when Kristoff arrived because they wanted to have some "private talks". Sure, they were totally gonna talk. Come to think of it, if he would be alone with his girlfriend Princess Anna, he wouldn´t want to talk, either. But obviously, he wouldn´t get a chance to not-talk to her, so why bother? She had an extremely gorgeous sister, after all, who was a lot closer to the type of girls he liked, at least in terms of looks. And that dress of hers was really very nice to look at, or at some spots rather not to look at. He smirked. His brother would probably totally freak out if he knew what Robin thought, but the he wasn´t bothered by that much. There was nothing wrong in thinking of pretty girls, even if his oh-so-clever older brother liked them. It was not like Roland had a crush on her or something, he was just so super sorry for what happened ages ago, which was him going to a super expensive school and become a scientist, which had been his dream since he was a kid, and therefore leaving his friend the princess behind. Robin was then distracted from his thoughts about his brother and Queen Elsa and their relationship when he ran into a young blonde. "Couldn´t you be more careful?" she asked angrily, but her voice sounded off, like she wasn´t angry a lot. "I´m sorry" he said. She looked up at him and her eyes grew wide when she realised he was wearing a uniform. Girls like men in uniforms, they say. "Oh, I´m sorry Officer, I didn´t-" "You don´t need to apologise, it was my fault. Why would you apologise?" he asked with a quizzical smile. "Most officers don´t seem to think that way, Sir, I´ve made some experience with that." Bad experiences, obviously. The young man immediately felt sorry for her. "Well, I´m not like most men are. My name is Robin, by the way, I´m Princess Anna´s personal guard" he told her, totally not trying to make an impression. "Oh, you´re Roland´s brother? I´m Lotta" she said and stretched out her hand. Of course, she already knew his brother, just like all the interesting girls. That was so unfair, Roland didn´t even care about girls a lot. "Pleasure to meet you" he replied and made her smile. Yep, one thing he was good at while his brother wasn´t: making people smile. Roland wasn´t exactly the most light-hearted fellow. "Pleasure to meet you too, but I´m afraid I have to continue working now" she explained. "But I´m sure we will run into each other again eventually." She smiled at him again and vanished around a corner.

Olaf was wandering around the castle with nothing to do. He had already annoyed Karlsson, Kai and Gerda and now he was looking for someone new to spend time with. Anna, he thought, why not go visit Anna? The snowman made a 180° turn and went into the opposite direction. When he arrived at Anna´s door, he listened. What he heard was a quite giggle that was the princess´. Obviously, someone was having fun in there, so this was the perfect place to be. He opened the door and saw Anna and Kristoff sitting on the bed hugging each other tightly and- "Olaf!" Anna exclaimed as the two of them burst apart. "What are you doing here?" Her freckled cheeks were reddened, just like Kristoff´s. "I thought you were doing something fun", he explained. "I thought maybe I could join." "Well, sorry little guy, but we, uh, we are busy right now, alright? Why don´t you come back later?" Anna suggested. "Okay, then I´ll go see Elsa" Olaf told them and started to leave. "Wait!" Anna then shouted. "Don´t tell her what we were doing, alright?" "How could I, I don´t know it myself" the little snowman said and left the two of them alone. The way to Elsa´s study where she was usually working wasn´t long and he just thought about how she would be happy to see him. "Olaf!" she said, indeed positively surprised. "Please, come in." By the time she said that he was already standing beside her. "Hi Elsa" he said. "I thought I might visit you because we haven´t seen each other a lot lately. You´re always busy with some papers or this boy, I don´t remember his name, the one who got undressed in front of your room this afternoon." She looked at him funnily and a little bit embarrassed. "He was just getting out of his winter things" she explained. "Otherwise he would have been cold while we experimented with my powers." He nodded. "You spend a lot of time with him lately. Is he your friend?" the snowman asked. "Oh, no, it´s not like I wanted to kiss him or get married or anything." "I didn´t ask you if you are in love with him, I asked you if he was your friend" he explained. "Well, maybe. I´ve only known him for a few days, I cant really tell" she said. "A few days? Feels to me like I´ve known him for ever!" Olaf said. "How odd, that´s just the way I feel sometimes" Elsa told him. Suddenly, the expression on her face changed. "Is something wrong?" the snowman asked with concern. "No, it was just a memory, or rather a part of a memory." "What was it about?" he wanted to know. "I can´t tell, but it has something to do with the library." "If you want to go there and find out, I can go back to Anna, I bet they´re done now" he told her. Elsa´s face was now showing a curious expression. "Who is done with what?" she demanded to know. "Oh, I´m sorry, I can´t tell you, Anna told me not to." "Did she?" "Yes, but to be honest, I don´t even know what exactly it was, so I couldn´t tell you anyway" he told her. Elsa seemed to be very interested in that. "You know what? We are going to visit Anna together." "Oh, I´d love that!"

Kissing was fun, Anna thought. And great. And it gave her this feeling in her stomach, like she was sick, but in a good way, not in a bad way, it was like butterflies. Or flying reindeer. Wait, what? The kissing must have damaged her brain, she was clearly not on the hight of her mental abilities right now. Kristoff´s hand was playing with one of her pigtails and she could tell what he smelled like. Despite what people said, he wasn´t smelling to bad, maybe he changed his washing habits now that he lived in the palace when in town and dated a princess. Right now, he was smelling like fir needles and fresh air, however that was possible, but it was a good smell. Anna suddenly asked herself how she might smell. Hopefully, it was flowers and chocolate or something like that. Chocolate. Even thinking about it made her hungry. "Hungry" she mumbled. Kristoff pulled away. "Sorry, what did you say?" "I´m hungry" she explained and made him smile. His answer was deferred by the entry of her sister and her sister´s snowman. Traitor, he must have told her everything. "Hello Kristoff" Elsa greeted him coolly. "Oh, hello Elsa" she replied cheerfully. "What are you doing here, I thought you were busy with paperwork?" "Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something." "I feel honoured by your affection, but don´t you have more important things to do?" "Oh, this is very important, trust me" her sister said. Now, that escalated quickly. Wait, important? Oh no, she wasn´t- she couldn´t- "Would you excuse us for a moment please, Kristoff? And take Olaf with you, if you don´t mind." On her sisters request he left the room together with the snowman, giving her a last look full of compassion. "We were not doing anything bad" Anna tried to justify herself. "Whether something is appropriate or not is not your´s to decide, but I believe you. Nevertheless we have to talk about some things-" "You´re not gonna give me "the talk" are you?!" Elsa sighed. "To be honest, I would rather not, if I don´t have to. Do I have to?" "See, you don´t, mother talked to me about stuff back when, you know, things started and stuff, if you know what I mean" Anna blabbered. "I can assure you that I do. Nevertheless we have to talk about your relationship with Kristoff" her sister insisted. "Aw no, please Elsa, that´s just going to be another gross experience the two of us share" Anna complained. "I´m sorry, but this is absolutely necessary. So, first of all we have to define what is appropriate and what is not. I´d say everything that demands getting rid of clothing is most definitely inappropriate, things that don´t will be considered alright, is that fair? All of those rules only apply for the pre-marriage period, of course." Anna grimaced. "And no one is getting married while still under-aged, is that understood?" "But that´s three years!" the younger one protested. "Well, then you´ll have a lot of time to get to know each other better" her sister expressed and Anna was sure she looked gleeful. Man, Elsa was still pretty boring at times. And overly mature. And totally against fun. She was just so darn grown up and sophisticated. Why couldn´t she be like your average 21 year old monarch with magical abilities? Why? "Come on! You can´t forbid all the fun!" Elsa looked at her with her 'I´m the ruler, you do as I say'-face. "I am not forbidding all the fun, I am just taking actions against your immaturity." "Well, obviously to you immaturity is a synonym for fun." Great use of the word synonym there, she didn´t even know that she knew such words. "It is not, adults have fun as well" Elsa declared. "But that´s boring fun! Like, reading and sitting around drinking wine while discussing politics. I was talking about fun fun!" Anna stated, which was met by her sister with a raised eyebrow. "Gee, for someone who´s merely of age you´re so last century!" "It´s enough, Anna, you´ve made your point clear" her sister then replied. "I have not changed my mind, what I said earlier is still in force." "Gosh, you don´t even know what this is like!" "What?" "To be in love! You´re 21 and you´ve never been in love! That´s exactly what you need, a guy, or a girl, whatever, but someone to be in love with, because then you would understand me, and what you do to me!" Anna shouted. "What I do to you? Anna, I do nothing to you! I´m just trying to help you and protect you!" "Well, you´re no good at that!" she yelled at her and regretted it the very next second when she saw the look in her sisters eyes. "No, Elsa, I´m sorry, I didn´t mean it, okay? Really, trust me, please, I didn´t mean this, I didn´t mean to-" Anna stuttered unbelievably fast. Her older sister flashed her a forced smile, to be fair, most of her smiles looked a bit forced, like she just wasn´t used to this motion. "Don´t worry, Anna, I know you didn´t want to hurt me. You´re right, I don´t really understand you in regards to this and I obviously also don´t understand what is best for you, then" she just said and turned around. "No, Elsa, wait" Anna exclaimed and caught her wrist. "It´s just, I don´t always appreciate the things people do for me, like, you do what is best for me, but I don´t see it that way right now. And also, you don´t have to worry about me all the time, I´m eighteen, I´m pretty much grown up, and you´re not my mother, you´re my sister. I know you are responsible for me and everything, but-" "But you are not the little girl I knew anymore" her sister finished. "Yeah, right, I´m not five anymore, I can handle stuff." They shared a smile and then hugged.

"_We have to do something now, fast" the king said. "We have to stop this." He brought his fist down onto the table. "I really don´t see why you are reacting this way" his wife countered. "Don´t you think it´s nice that Elsa has a friend? She seemed to be so lonely and sad for a girl her age. She´s only eight years old, Richard." The king looked back at her. "You know exactly why. We didn´t separate the girls for nothing, Johanna. We did it because these powers are dangerous. What is the girl even thinking, getting so close!" he said furiously. "She just kissed him on the cheek" the queen reminded him. "Yes, today it was the cheek, but what about next year, the year after that, in five, in ten? Let us face it, it is not going to stay that way." "Are you implying something?" Johanna asked. "Yes, she is eventually going to fall in love with that boy" he replied. "Really? And even if you are right, what does it matter? He´s a nice young boy." "We can´t afford a peasant boy on the throne of Arendelle!" he erupted. "Not with a ruler like her! She needs someone who can politically support her, somone with a family." "I am sorry, but I think you are being prejudiced and stupid" she responded. "Maybe, but think about what could happen. Imagine if there was another accident. You know as well as I do that Elsa would never recover from that. We need to separate them. Did you not say his parents were trying to get him to an expensive boarding school?" he remembered. "Yes, but they can not afford this kind of education. His father was a gardener, his mother is one of our maids" the queen explained. "Very well, they can consider this problem solved. We will pay for everything, a ship is leaving tomorrow, if I remember correctly. He is going to take a letter with him that will convince the headmaster to accept him" her husband told her. "Do you not think this to be rather cruel?" she voiced her concern. "Not more than letting him die of a frozen heart." "It is decided, then. He leaves tomorrow."_


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Thanks for your positive feedback, it really gave me a motivation boost. So, I hope you like the new chapter and feel free to tell me what you think of it.

_**Friends**_

"Your majesty" Kai interrupted the breakfast. Elsa swallowed and gave him a questioning look. "Yes, Kai?" Anna was sitting beside her, today they were joined by Kristoff, Olaf, who of course didn´t need to eat, but joined them anyway sometimes, and the two brothers, although she didn´t remember inviting them. "Your majesty, a messenger from the Southern Isles has arrived." That must be the first answer to her request for food supplies. "What is the message about?" "The king sends his regards and inquires if his daughter might stay at the palace as a representative for the length of the negotiations for a trade agreement" Kai explained. Well hurray, the King and Queen of the Southern Isles were sending another child. As the last one had been a power hungry sociopath, she wasn´t too fond of the idea. "Tell the messenger that I can not receive the princess until-" Until basically forever, but she couldn´t very well say that. "Until November." It was September so this should give her some time. "I´m afraid that´s not possible your majesty, as the princess was the one to deliver the message in the first place." "Then I will receive her immediately, Kai" she sighed. "Yes, of course, your majesty" he said, turned around and opened the door. "May I introduce, Princess Greta Elisabeth of the Southern Isles" Kai announced as a brown haired girl entered. She seemed to be older then Anna, twenty or twenty-one probably. The family resemblance with Prince Hans was there, but luckily not very strong. "Your majesty" the girl said and courtesied. "Your highness" Elsa replied. "Welcome to Arendelle. It is a pleasure to meet you and I can assure you, we are delighted to have you as our guest. May I introduce you to my companions, these are my sister Anna-" Anna winked at her with a full mouth. "-Kristoff Bjorgman, the Royal Ice Master-" Kristoff who, along the other males, had stood up when the princess entered, shortly nodded. "-My sisters personal guard, Robin-" The lad smiled and slightly bowed. "-And my Court Scientist, Roland Johanson." She finished, while the young man nodded respectfully. "We were just having breakfast, you are welcome to join us." The girl smirked and took a seat beside her, opposite of Anna. "I hope your journey was pleasant" Elsa started small talk. "Indeed, very much so. One really feels free out on the sea, no land to be seen, no borders, no limitations. It is a wonderful feeling" Greta replied. The situation was strange, even to Elsa, who herself was what Anna called "socially awkward". Anna seemed not to be in her usual good mood, Kristoff recognised this and was obviously concerned, Robin was busy eating and Roland looked as if he would prefer to be off doing some science or curing people from the flew or whatever it was that he did all day. Come to think of it, she should ask him that some time. "You might be pleased to hear that my brother was taken into custody as soon as he returned. Right now, he is spending his time in the dungeons, as my other brothers haven´t decided upon a penalty yet" the princess told them. "Come to speak of your brother, he never mentioned having a sister" Anna threw in. "Well, he wanted you to pity him, right, so he told you about his terrible older brothers, but younger sister doesn´t really sound that impressively horrible, and also we didn´t exactly have the best relationship. Not after I called him a mean jerk, anyways." Anna nodded. "When did you call him a mean jerk?" Robin asked. "When I was, let me guess, about thirteen" she answered. "Like I told you, we were never close. I liked my second youngest brother, Karl, a lot better, but Hans was closest to me in age. Well, still is, Eduard isn´t even a teenager yet." "You have another brother?!" Anna exclaimed. "How many are you even!" "We are fifteen, Karl is the twelfth brother, Hans the thirteenth, I am the fourteenth and the only girl, and then there´s Eduard, who is only twelve." Anna´s eyes were wide, and also the others looked at her with strange expressions. "Wow, I have only one brother and he´s already annoying as heck, I couldn´t ever stand fourteen of those" Robin said. "Well, it´s indeed really annoying. And then there´s the half-sibling thing because, you know, my eight oldest brothers are the sons of my father´s first wife, while me and the others are the children of his second wife" Greta explained. That at least explained how the youngest prince was only a few years younger the the children of the oldest princes. She knew how old they were, she had to write letters to at least four christenings and two communions in the last three years. "That is a really big family" Kristoff said. "And where I grew up, the whole village was like a family, so I´m an expert on that." Elsa was really glad when Kai opened the door again. "Someone wishes to speak to the doctor" he declared. Roland looked up, confusedly. "Sent them in" she ordered before he even had the time to rise and leave. A young boy entered the room. His trousers were ragged at the knees and he was tightly holding a cap in his hands. He seemed to be really nervous and like he was in a hurry. "David" Roland called him. "What is it?" The boy came closer and whispered something into his ear. "Go back as fast as you can and tell them I am coming." The boy nodded, bowed and left the room as fast as he could. "If you would excuse me, my mother sent him, there is an emergency in the orphanage" the young man said and stood up. "Your majesty, your highnesses." He nodded into their directions and left with long, quick steps.

"Robin?" Anna asked. She was pretty bored and right now just lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling. "Yes?" "What do you think about the princess?" She glanced at him. "Well, she´s quite pretty, I guess" he said. "How pretty?" "Well, there is no measure for that, right?" he asked. Guys could be so annoyingly stupid at times. "Well, then make a comparison or something. Is she prettier than me?" He looked at her. Well, she might have gotten him in an uncomfortable situation there. "Depends on who you ask. I´d say, about as pretty as you" he stated. That was of course the right answer, because it was not as if some random princess from the Southern Isles could be. "And what about my sister?" She closely examined his face. "Your sister is the most gorgeous woman I know" he told her. She sat up in an instant and stared at him. "My gosh, you´ve got a crush on my sister?!" "Uhm," he bit his lip. "Maybe." The poor guy looked totally unsure, probably about how she would react to that. "That´s fantastic!" she exclaimed. Robin was the second nicest guy in the whole of Arendelle (at least as far as she knew) and he was in love with her sister? Awesome news! "Does she know? Oh, of course she doesn´t, when it comes to relationships, Elsa is as observant as a sack of potatoes." It might not be appropriate to compare your sister the queen to a sack of potatoes, or potatoes in general, but that was the best she could think of right now. "You have to tell her!" she exclaimed. "I don´t think she-" "Whatever! You´re never going to get somewhere if you don´t tell her" she interrupted him. Gosh, why was he behaving like an idiot? Her sister most definitely needed some people to be close to her, and a boyfriend would be downright perfect, especially Robin. "You go talk to her now!" she demanded. "Anna, I don´t-" "No don´t´s, you go now or I have you fired." He looked at her rather shocked. "Yeah, I´d do that." ´Cause it was all for their own good.

"Your majesty?" She looked up from the papers she was reading trough. "Robin" she said. "What can I do for you? Where is Anna?" "She, uh, she´s with Kristoff" he explained. Hopefully they weren´t getting inappropriate or something. "Why are you here?" she tried it again. The boy might be looking a little bit nervous now, he was biting his lip. "Well, I wanted to talk to you about something." How very informative he was. "Go ahead" she told him and offered him the chair on the opposite side of the table. "I don´t know how to say it" he explained, cheeks reddening. "I´m not a man of many words, really." With that, he suddenly came closer. A lot closer. She was to much taken aback to react quickly, so when she shoved him back, he had already kissed her. "I´m sorry, I don´t know what I was thinking" he immediately tried to make an excuse. "Did you- Did- Anna told you to, didn´t she?" He stared at the floor, which was as good as a confession. "Well, I wouldn´t say she-" "I want you to go." He opened his mouth, then shut it again and turned around. What on earth had Anna been thinking? Not at all, obviously. And with her choice she created the most awkward situation ever. She couldn´t just throw him out, he hadn´t really done something wrong, but there would always be this rather unpleasant memory in the back of their minds. What on earth had they both been thinking? That she liked him? Because she didn´t, he was basically still a kid and always doing stupid things with Anna, how could they think she was interested in him? Also, his brother was basically the only friend she had right now. Without really noticing it, Elsa had left the study and was now standing in the library. Her friend. Friend. _"You´re my best friend too, and I always will be yours, I promise" _the voice of a little boy said. Then the images all came back. Two kids reading, dancing, laughing, a boy and a girl. And then the boy was gone.

Roland was unpacking his doctors bag to clean his stuff when the door was thrown open. It was Elsa. "You are the boy from the library" she said, standing in the door frame. "Why didn´t you say anything?" "Would you have believed me?" He had thought about telling her, but then decided to wait. He gave her a questioning look. "I don´t think so, no" she answered and took one step into the room. "See. You clearly didn´t remember me, and maybe I also thought that it might be better for me to get a fresh start" he tried to explain. It was pretty selfish, but he had thought that he had better chances of becoming her friend when she didn´t remember that he had left. "I guess I suppressed those memories, that was easier than to remember that my best friend had left" she said. He knew that, he knew that it was his fault, he knew that he should have stayed. "Please believe me, I am really sorry for all of that. If I knew back then what would happen, if I had a choice, if I could go back and change something, I would stay here and be your friend" he told her. He might not have gotten the education he had now, but what did it matter? When somebody´s happiness was concerned, there were more important things than school and studying. "You went to that boarding school, didn´t you? That was the reason you left?" He nodded. "How could your parents afford that?" Judging by her voice, she already knew. "Your parents paid for everything. I got on a ship the next morning so I didn´t have time to say goodbye. I-" He was cut off mid-sentence when she made two fast steps into his direction. The next thing he knew was that her arms were around his neck. He then carefully put his hands on her back to return the hug. He honestly didn´t expect this plot twist. "You´re still my best friend, you know" she whispered. "And you are still mine" he replied.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Decisions**_

"How is everything going?" Elsa asked Roland. They were walking in the palace gardens, who looked really beautiful in late October. "With the experiments? Good, I am nearly finished so I can start analysing the results soon" he explained. "And concerning your life?" "Well, Granny started knitting our Christmas sweaters, Robin is himself and mother is stressed because she has trouble at work" he said. "Why?" she wanted to know. "The children, they are all getting sick, I am over there every two days, and it is even worse now that they don´t get all the different kinds of food anymore " he told her. "Oh no, please don´t tell me food prices are rising already!" He nodded. This was terrible, she thought she would have more time for further negotiations. "Haven´t you found someone to buy food from yet?" he asked. "No. Corona can barely provide enough food for their own people this year, Greta says her father also can´t send some, and the others are all expecting enormous sums for their goods, which would make them just as expensive as they are now. I wanted to write a few more letters, but it seems like I have no choice but to contact the Duke of Weaseltown" she sighed. This was about the worst thing that could have happened because not only had she made a fuss about this in the council meetings, but she would also have to make promises and excuses to the Duke. "I could be there when you welcome the Duke, you know. I mean, if you want me to" he offered. "Thank you, Roland. And if there is anything I can do for those children immediately, just let me know" she told him. She would of course send money, but that would have to be discussed in the next council meeting first. "Actually, there is something. Why don´t you come with me when I visit them some time?" he proposed. "I don´t think anyone would want to be visited by me" she said. Why would they? "Don´t say that! You are being stupid again. These children would love to meet you, they are your greatest admirers" he explained. "Believe me, I know many of them for most of their lives. Which is due to the fact that they are all still very young. Please come with me, they would be overjoyed, I promise." He really knew how to push her buttons. Well, he knew her for a long time now, and he was a fast learner. But why did it have to be orphans? She had a melancholic feeling about orphans, probably because she was one herself. Just that she had already been more or less grown up while these kids had lost their parents really early in life. How could the visit of someone they didn´t even know make anything better? "Alright, I am coming with you, but I don´t have any experience with children and-" "And that makes you feel insecure? I know that feeling, but I assure you, it is going to be fine."

"Are you kidding me?!" Anna shouted. "You told me I´d never have to see the King of the Weasels ever again!" She could see Elsa flinch. "I´m sorry, I mean, it´s not really your fault" she said. Sometimes, she just couldn´t keep it in, but emotional outbursts weren´t exactly her sisters thing, which was actually quiet funny and/or ironic, given her history. "Anna, you have to understand that this is necessary to supply our subjects with food. Believe me, I have tried to avoid this, but we are in a very unfortunate situation and Weaseltown is willing to help. Their trade with us was even so important for their economy that the terms of our new partnership are much more agreeable than-" Blah, blah, blah. Now they were seriously talking politics and treaties and stuff, how very boring. She knew it was important and everything, but it was also, well, boring. At these times, she was really glad she was the younger sister. Thinking about it, she was pretty often glad to be the younger one, it had so many advantages. A lot less boring political talks, no stupid council meetings, no public speeches, no public pressure to always be perfect, overall just a lot less responsibilities, but all the comforts of palace life. On the other hand, also being only the princess obviously meant she had to be 'appropriate', which was acceptable as long as kissing fell into that category. She wondered what this would be like in the unlikely case that her sister ever liked someone. God, they surely wouldn´t even be allowed to touch or something like that. "-So it is really not fair to whine about the Duke´s visit. We are all going to be polite for that one week and then he will go and leave us alone until we have some kind of a big festivity." "What exactly do you mean by 'big festivity'? Your wedding? ´Cause then chances are good I´ll never have to see him again." Now, she thought she might have crossed the line between joking and actually hurting her sister, but she smiled. "No, I was actually thinking of your wedding." Obviously, Elsa wasn´t taking the 'no boyfriend' thing too serious, maybe even indifferent. Huh, and Anna was sure that she was hanging around with Robin´s brother even more often lately. Falling for the older brother would also explain why she rejected the younger one. But why? He didn´t seem to be very charming or funny or let alone handsome, he did have a cute butt, though, if she remembered correctly... "Anna, are you even listening to me?" Elsa asked slightly annoyed. "Sure. The Duke is coming to negotiate something with you and it is important to be nice" she said. Her sister raised an eyebrow, which was kind of becoming her thing, and then sighed.

Roland was nervous. Despite what he had said, these were just children and they could easily do something that Elsa wasn´t comfortable with or used to. "Roland?" she tried to get his attention. "Sorry, I was a bit absent-minded. Let us go" he said. They stepped out onto the bridge that connected the palace and the town with each other. He was going trough these streets every day, they were nothing new to him, but his companion examined everything with a childlike curiosity that surprised him. She looked just as usual with her glittery dress and braid even though everybody else was adapting to the cold temperatures of November. He could have taken her to the orphanage at an earlier date, but he didn´t want her to catch anything from the children. Right now, only a couple of them were still ill, and those would be in bed. Before he even knew it, his feet had taken him to the large building the orphanage was in. "Ready? We can still go now, if you want to. Children can be quite difficult and they are not very fond of personal space so I could understand it if-" "I agreed to join you and I have not changed my mind" she told him and looked like she was bracing herself. He swung the doors open, but nobody was to be seen in the entrance hall. He put his scarf, hat and coat into the cupboard next to the door, everything was silent. How very strange. "Is anybody here?" he asked loudly, but playful. The very next moment, a group of children was storming down the stairs, causing a lot of noise.

"Roland!" a little girl shouted and jumped into his arms. "Hello Klara" he greeted her. The other children were gathering around him and all talking at once. Elsa was rather certain that she had never seen her friend be this relaxed and so much himself. "Children! We are all forgetting our manners right now. I brought a guest with me today" he explained. They all simultaneously turned their heads and looked at her. Or stared at her, rather. Only little Klara seemed to be oblivious to who she was. She felt the warm blood rising in her cheeks. As queen, she should be more than able to handle this situation, how was she supposed to give a speech in front of her people when she freaked out because of a few children? "Is that your girlfriend?" the girl whispered. "She looks really nice." Roland shook his head. "That´s the queen, Klara" one of the older children said. "Oh. But- But not the Snow Queen, right?" Roland´s face lost all it´s colour, and so did her´s, as far as she knew. The young man´s face was deadly serious and he looked concerned. He promised they would be overjoyed. "Of course, who else would she be?" Klara´s face lit up. "Can you make it snow? Please, please, please!" she begged. All the other children looked at her expectingly, too. "You don´t have to" Roland told her quietly. "I already did" she replied. They all looked up to the ceiling and saw the snowflakes falling down to their faces. The children looked excited and started to twirl around and tried to catch the snowflakes with their tongues. One of the children threw a snowball and that started it all, snowballs were flying everywhere and she didn´t even know who threw the first one to hit her. Roland tried to look serious, but then he burst out laughing. She conjured up another snowball with a snap of her fingers and threw it right into his face with a flick of her wrist. She wouldn´t have guessed so, but this was so funny she started laughing as well.

The snowball fight only ended when Roland´s mother entered, a toddler on her hip. "Alright, this is enough!" she shouted. She wasn´t angry or anything, she just wanted them to stop, he knew it and the children knew it as well. Elsa looked like a child caught doing something forbidden. "Your majesty!" his mother exclaimed and courtesied. "Roland, why didn´t you tell me you would bring the queen here?" He had only opened his mouth when said queen answered herself: "We did not want to trouble you with it. I wanted everything to be as usual." His mother nodded. "I hope you all behaved well" she then added. "Yes" all of the children answered. She looked at Elsa who slightly smiled at her, and then at him. "Well, fantastic, now you´ve ruined your jacket" she said and pointed at his shoulder where the jacket had indeed ripped. "I´m sorry" he said, but she only shook her head and held out her hand. "Give it to me, I am going to fix it" she told him. He took the jacket off and handed it to her. He was now only wearing his black vest over his white shirt. In exchange for the jacket, his mother handed him the toddler. So far, the visit had been better than he had thought. "Roland, dear, would you have a look at the children who are still ill?" his mother then broke his chain of thought. "Yes, sure, where are they?" What a stupid question, they were upstairs, where else would they be? He nodded and was about to make his way upstairs when Elsa called after him. "Roland, you are still holding the toddler." When you spend all your weekends with children, you start forgetting about such things, they were hanging on his back or holding on to his neck all the time. "Oh, right, but what-" Instead of answering the question he wanted to ask she just took the child out of his arms and into her own. "Well, and who are you?" "Lars" the little one mumbled. "Nice to meet you, Lars" she replied. He had hoped that this visit would help her becoming comfortable around people and it seemed like he had been right. He started climbing the stairs and when he looked back, his friend was surrounded by all the children who seemed to be talking all at once again.

When he came back, she was sitting in a chair, still surrounded by the children, telling them a story. "And you really have a snowman who can walk and talk?" Klara wanted to know. "Yes. You would like him, he is very funny. His name is Olaf. When I made him, I mean, when I first built him as an ordinary snowman, my sister Anna was about as old as you are now" she told them. "Could you take him with you when you visit us again?" the girl asked. Elsa looked at him and then back at Klara. "Well, I am very busy right now, but I could ask him if he would like to come and meet you without me" she promised. "Yay!" the children shouted. "Could you come to our Christmas party?" somebody asked. "We are decorating a really big tree and then one of Father Christmas´ elves comes and brings us our presents" Klara explained. "I´m sorry Klara, but I think she might already be otherwise occupied" he told the girl. "Really?" She looked disappointed, but then her face was full of excitement again. "Are you having a ball at Christmas at the palace? That would be wonderful!" she exclaimed. His friend glanced at him again, slightly unsure of what to say, but it was indeed a good question. "Yes, your majesty, what are you planning to do?" he added. "Well, if everybody wants me to have a ball, then I am going to do exactly that. Oh, but who should we invite to it?" she said and looked at him expectingly. "I think you should invite everybody" he answered. "Give your people something to look forward to, something to be excited about." If the people got to know their ruler better, they would also start supporting her and after the ball, hopefully nobody would doubt that she was the benevolent ruler her advisors wanted her to be seen as. "And which day would you suggest?" "Why don´t we also celebrate your birthday? The 21st would be just the right day for the ball" he explained. "Well then, so be it" she replied and smirked when the children got overly excited although they would surely already be in bed by the time this celebration would start. All in all, this had been a very interesting day. He had gotten to know his friend better and seen some sides that were new to him. And he had convinced her to invite the whole town to the palace for the Yule Ball.

Kristoff also wasn´t too excited about the Duke´s visit, mostly because Anna disliked him. A lot. He had never met the Duke so he couldn´t really say anything to that, but Anna despised the man nearly as much as she despised Hans. But now, despite their despise of him, they were all standing on the steps in front of the gate in the courtyard waiting for the Duke´s arrival and gritting their teeth. Well, all of them beside him and Elsa, of course. And none of them seemed to be in a particularly good mood. Anna looked grumpy, but she was not succeeding in looking more menacing or angry than a kitten. Greta was showing a bored, above it all expression. Elsa, who was talking to Anna telling her to be nice or whispering with Roland. Robin stood there stepping from one foot to another trying to stay warm. What took them so long? Elsa had even sent horses to the harbour so the delegation wouldn´t have to walk the 100 meters from the ship to the palace. "Finally" Anna complained when they heard noises. The horses trotted into the courtyard, the first of them carrying the Duke. The first person to get down was a young man with blond hair. He took the reins of the Duke´s horse so he could get down easily. Then both of them turned around to face the welcoming committee. Kristoff was amused by the fact that these two men were pretty much exact opposites. The Duke of Weaseltown was old, with some grey hair that Anna had told him was fake, he wore glasses and was small and skinny with a giant nose. The other man was tall, broad shouldered, had bright green eyes and was probably in his mid twenties. Oh, and he was good-looking, he supposed. "Ah, Queen Elsa, at last we meet again" the Duke said. "Welcome back to Arendelle, Duke, we are all pleased to have you as our guest once again" she replied politely. "Well, you better should be." The Duke obviously didn´t care much about being polite himself. "I believe you haven´t met my nephew yet?" he asked. "No, I have not had-" "This is Henrik, Viscount of Westmark and my successor" the older man cut her off. The Viscount bowed low and then took her hand. "Your majesty, it is a pleasure to meet you" he told her and seemed to be the first person to say this and be totally honest. "Princess Anna" he added and bowed again. "Henrik" Greta greeted him. "Greta." He was obviously surprised to meet her. The cool tone of her voice had caught Anna´s attention. "It is nice to meet you again" he just said. "If you say so" she replied. "And who are these young men? When I left I did suppose you had banned all of those from the palace" the Duke threw in and showed that he did have somewhat of an education. I mean, Kristoff had been raised by trolls and even he had better manners than the Duke. Anna made a face but luckily the two men were now looking at Roland and himself. "This is Roland Johanson, my Court Physician and Scientist" Elsa explained and Roland bowed, like he did. "And Kristoff Bjorgman, who helped us defeat Prince Hans and is a good friend of the family" she then finished. Should he feel complimented or insulted about this description? Of course it was nice and all that, but she basically selected the part of the story that probably sounded best to the duke or was least embarrassing to her. "Why don´t we all go inside now? It is rather cold" Roland suggested when everyone was just staring at each other. "Yes, that is a good idea" the Viscount agreed.


	8. Chapter 8

Here we go, the next chapter already. As I will have to finish the next one until tomorrow due to it´s holiday related topic, some reviews would be really nice.

_**Preparations**_

They didn´t even let them alone for breakfast, and that was what Anna hated the most. The Duke has to be around for negotiations about a new trade agreement? Fine. He lives in their palace for the length of these negotiations? Fine. He comes to their breakfast? Not Fine, totally and absolutely not fine. Breakfast was their family thing, kind of. Her and Elsa and Kristoff and yes, for some time now Robin and Roland and, because Elsa invited her, Greta. This was when they discussed their plans for the day, when they tried to cheer each other up if something nasty was ahead, when they laughed about jokes and things like that. And now, there were the duke and his nephew. She didn´t bother about Henrik much, but his idiot uncle made her want to punch someone in the face, preferably him. "Greta, may I ask you for a favour?" Elsa broke the silence. "Yes, I guess so. What is it?" the princess wanted to know. "I need help with the preparations for the Yule Ball" the queen explained. Right, the ball. Anna was really excited about that. She didn´t know who had talked her sister into it, or how, but she loved that person for it, this would be amazing. And they would finally celebrate Elsa´s birthday in a proper way, as they had missed her 21st one, the 22nd needed to be a really big thing. She just didn´t know what to get her as a present. What did Elsa need? Nothing she could just gift-wrap. And what did she want? Anna had no idea. What would the others do? And then there was Christmas, she also needed to get a present for Christmas. "What exactly do you want me to do?" Greta wanted to know. "It would be really helpful if you could think of the decorations. And Roland needs some new clothing." "No, I assure you, I don´t" the young man objected. "You do, you can not go to a ball in your everyday black suit. Now before you have time to make a comment about how I should not buy you things, I did not have a present for your birthday, so now you are going to get a made-to-measure suit from me" Elsa replied. "I would gladly take care of that" Greta assured her and smirked. Why was she smirking? "Are you also going to buy Kristoff a new suit?" Anna asked, because it would be totally mean of her sister to get her boyfriend a suit and Kristoff not. "Of course, he surely needs one." Was that an insult? Because it sounded like one, somewhat. Duh, the Weaseltown thing really made her a lot more negative about things than usual. "Have I understood correctly, you are having a ball?" the duke asked. "Yes, on the 22nd" Anna told him suspiciously. "Why?" "Because your sister forgot to invite us" he answered. "I did not do so because we did not invite any foreign diplomats at all, we hold this ball for the people from town" her sister stated. "Well, we do not care about this, we would come anyway" the duke said. "But-" Anna begun. "You are welcome. But I have to tell you that we always celebrate Christmas with the family only, so you would have to leave the next day" her sister declared. Thank goodness, she would have never forgiven her if the duke would have stayed for Christmas.

"This is stupid" Roland exclaimed. Greta shook her head and smirked. "Well obviously the queen is of a different opinion" she just replied. So far, her visit to Arendelle had been very pleasant. The people were nice, although she had a feeling that Princess Anna disliked her. She did not have a reason to, but obviously Princess Anna didn´t need a reason for anything. Her sister, on the other hand, got along with Greta quiet well, and Greta herself also preferred the company of the older sister, as the younger one was too blissful, hyperactive and oblivious to certain things for her liking. "I really don´t need a made-to-measure suit for the ball" he stated. "That´s none of my business" she responded. "But I think that she is right, you do. I mean, you can´t accompany her looking like that." She made a vague gesture into his direction while she was examining the different materials the tailor had brought. "You think she wants me as her companion?" "Why else would she buy you clothes, huh?" He stood on a stool while the tailor was taking his measures. "But don´t panic, that doesn´t mean she likes you or something. I mean, likes you a lot, she obviously likes you as a friend" she added. "Actually, I don´t think she is interested in anybody that way." How sad for all the second and third sons who had speculated into a different direction. "Your highness, I have taken the measures, now you just have to decide on a material" the tailor said."You must be very busy right now" she said casually. "So far, you are one of few people from the palace who have not ordered anything new. I have been here two days in a row now, taking measures and asking about materials" he told her. "Well, I brought my ball gown with me from home, so I don´t need one. But let´s see about the materials" she changed the subject and examined the young man on the stool once again. "Alright, white silk shirt and cravat, the satin vest in teal so it matches your eye colour. The jacket dark blue and from velvet. What material do you want your trousers to be? Do you have black boots?" she then asked. "Cotton. And no, I don´t have boots, why? I can wear my-" "No you can not. I am going to arrange that. So the trousers dark blue and made from cotton" she said. "Yes, your highness. This suit matches her majesties new dress quite well, if I may add" the tailor explained. Of course it did, she was the one to draft that dress in the first place. Yes, she did indeed have a sense for fashion. And she was good at drawing and painting. Her room at home had been full of "arts-y stuff", as her brothers called it, but her mother had always encouraged her.

"Elsa! Elsa!" Anna came storming into the study like a whirlwind and sent some of the papers flying. "Yes Anna, what is it?" she asked slightly annoyed while picking up the papers. "The tree is here! The Christmas tree!" This childlike excitement would have been ridiculous if it were anyone else, but it matched Anna well. "You have to come and see it!" the younger sister insisted and dragged her out of the room. "It´s alright Anna, you can let go of me, I won´t run away from you" she explained. Anna glanced at her and then let go of her wrist. There it was, in one corner of the ball room, a giant tree. "Isn´t this amazing?" "Of course Anna!" Olaf said. "But why is there a tree inside the palace?" Anna looked shocked. "He never experienced Christmas, Anna" she reminded her. "Well, but he knows about lots of other stuff. Like, he knew how to recognise true love, but he doesn´t know about Christmas trees?!" Anna complained. "Why is there a tree in here?" Olaf asked again. "Because that is something you do on Christmas. You have a tree inside your house and then you decorate it and the presents are all put under it until it´s time to unpack them" Anna explained. "Oh, yay, presents!" The snow man got all excited. "Who is going to decorate the tree, by the way?" Anna wanted to know. "Can I? Please?" "Of course you can. But it is a lot of work so I invited some people to help us" her older sister told her. Then Kristoff appeared from behind the tree. "How do you like it? It´s the biggest one we could find" he said. "I love it!" Anna declared. "Where are the Christmas tree decorations?" "Gerda and Lotta are already on the way to bring them here" Kristoff replied. "And I sent Robin to look for a ladder." "What is this gathering all about?" Greta´s voice could be heard behind them. "You have eyes, I am sure you can figure it out yourself" Anna answered. The two of them did not get along well, which was a pity because Elsa liked Greta. She was actually similar to Anna in that she did not care too much about rules and conventions and things like that, but in a more mature way, like she knew exactly what rules she broke and what consequences that might have whereas Anna just didn´t care about such things and started whining when she was abut to get grounded. "That is indeed an impressive tree" the princess declared. Luckily, Roland entered before they could start fighting. Following him like ducklings followed their mothers, there were the children from the orphanage, jaws dropped and eyes shiny. "I think your home made quite an impression on them" the young scientist stated. She wanted to reply something, but then someone tugged on her sleeve. It was Klara. "Roland said you needed our help with decorating the tree. That tree?" she asked. "Yes, that tree" Elsa responded. "I´ve never seen such a big tree in my life. It´s ginormous!" the girl exclaimed excitedly. "Ginormous?" That sounded like a word Anna might use. "Gigantic and enormous" Roland explained. "Ah, of course, I could have guessed that myself. Do you want some hot chocolate?" she asked the little girl and her friends, who immediately got even more excited. "I think that is a yes. Karlsson, please get us as much hot chocolate as you can." "Yes, your majesty" the butler said and went away. "Now, I believe you haven´t met the others yet. These are my sister Anna and our friends Kristoff and Greta" she introduced them. "Hello" the children greeted them. It was just like when she had first met them, they were all talking at once and gathering around their new friends. "Your majesty." Lotta had reappeared in the ball room and behind her stood Henrik, both of them were holding boxes with Christmas decorations. "You are back, great. Alright everyone, we can start now!" she declared and regretted it the very next moment when total chaos broke out.

It took some time to decorate such a big tree and the ball room, so when they were finished they all just sat on the floor with their mugs of hot chocolate. "Isn´t this great? This is going to be the best Christmas ever!" Anna insisted. Well, it would definitely be better than the last ones. "But something is still missing, don´t you think? Something about the decorations is not quite right yet." Anna bit her lip and seemed to be deep in thought, trying to figure out what that was. Elsa looked around the room. There was Robin talking to Greta, Henrik, Lotta and Roland, also talking, Anna, thinking, and Kristoff was just looking at the tree. Freya had already taken the children back to the orphanage. The preparations for the ball reminded her of the preparations for the coronation, but they were also entirely different. She had been afraid of the coronation and what might happen, she had been scared, but the ball was something to be excited about. The people liked her, as far as she could tell, and she had friends now, she had Anna, and Kristoff and Roland and also Greta, and there was Henrik, who seemed to be quite different from his uncle, and Lotta and Robin and Freya and of course her loyal staff members who also helped her with the coronation, Kai, Gerda and Karlsson. Suddenly, she heard music, the piano forte from the room next to the ball room. "Can you play a walz, Greta?" Robin shouted into that direction. Greta was indeed missing. "sure, do you want to dance?" "Exactly!" He stood up and bowed in front of Lotta. "Milady would you like to dance?" When the girl blushed, but smiled, he took her hand and guided her to the middle of the room. Then, Greta started to play a popular piece of dancing music and Anna, eager to have some fun, pulled Kristoff to his feet. "Your brother is a good dancer" she told Roland. "Because I taught him last week" he whispered. "Do you remember how you said it was stupid that I could not dance? Well, I took lessons in school and now, I am proud to say that I am a decent dancer" he then added. "You did? For me? How kind of you." She looked at him expectingly and hoped that he would understand what she was trying to communicate. "Oh, do you want to dance?" he asked and offered his hand. So he did understand. And he was more than just a decent dancer, he was quite good for someone who could be so clumsy at times. They all suddenly stopped when the music changed into something that could barely be called that. She realised that Greta was no longer playing the piano, but dancing with Robin, and that Henrik had then stood up to dance with Lotta, so who was playing the piano? "Why did you stop?" Olaf asked and his head appeared from the other room. "Didn´t you like my improvised piece?" "Of course we did, we´re only a bit tired, that´s all" Anna assured him. "Okay, then I will wait a few minutes until I continue." Anna´s face lit up. "I know what´s missing!" she she burst out. "Hopefully not Olaf playing a solo on the piano" Greta mumbled and Anna responded with her angry kitten glare.

"I don´t want to wear a suit, this is stupid" Kristoff complained. "Come on, this is not even a suit! It is basically the same stupid over shirt thingy you wear all the time!" Anna complained back. "Yes, because I want to look like myself" Kristoff said. "Well then stop complaining! What are you even complaining about?" "These tight trousers!" They were just so darn tight he feared that they would rip if he sat down. "You look good in them" Anna told him. "They look really good together with your new boots." "Yeah, I also don´t like those boots" he expressed his dislike of these new clothes. They were black leather boots, similar to the ones that this fancy dukeling Henrik wore. "We made a compromise that you could wear a new vest thing like the one that you always wear over a white shirt if you wear those boots and trousers!" Anna was obviously not understanding what his problem was. "But I just don´t feel like myself in those clothes!" he exclaimed. "They are not mine, I am not me." "Well, that´s the thing about balls, you are not yourself but an elaborate, evolved version of yourself." Anna was definitely spending to much time around Elsa, she was actually starting to talk just like her. "And wearing fancy clothes makes me a more elaborate person? I don´t think so! If you don´t accept me the way I am, then maybe we should think this relationship thing over again!" Anna´s jaw dropped. "Well alright then, go back to your trolls in your valley, I can find someone who is not an idiot in less than two minutes! Robin!" she yelled. Why did she have to overreact all the time? Why was his girlfriend the most overly dramatic person in Arendelle? Why? "Robin!" "Enough Anna, stop it" he shouted. "Don´t shout at me like that!" she shouted back. "But when you shout at me that´s okay?!" "Yes! I´m the princess!" she yelled so loud that probably the whole palace knew what they were talking about. "You both stop shouting now!" Elsa yelled at both of them. He would´ve never guessed she could be that loud. Behind her, in the door way, stood the Johanson brothers and Greta. "I´m not going to stop because you are all 'obey me I´m the queen'!" Anna shouted and became more and more silent in the course of the sentence. "You are going to your room, young lady" the older sister commanded. "And Kristoff, if you ever shout at my sister again I swear to god I will not hold my anger back. Now go!" Had she just threatened him? What a gentle and warm person she could be, it was heart warming. "Come on Elsa it was just-" Anna shut her mouth when her sister unleashed her mighty Ice Glare. "I already have enough trouble, I don´t need you two fighting. I hope you have calmed down by tomorrow morning."


	9. Chapter 9

Here we go, the last Christmas chapter. Happy Holidays to all of you and a good start into the new year. (I am saying that now because I don´t know when I will be back, but the next chapter will be online in the first days of January, I promise)

_**The Yule Ball (and Christmas)**_

"Her majesty, Queen Elsa of Arendelle" Kai shouted. This was worse than coronation day, much worse. The people who stared at her back then had left the country a few days later and would probably never come back, but these people lived here, they were her subjects. Concentrate, she had to concentrate on something else. There was the tree, beautifully decorated by the children, who were all in bed by now, and the flurry that kept it covered in snow. Anna was standing next to her with Kristoff, who for once looked like he actually belonged here, which was strange and Anna looked fantastic in her new green ball gown. So did Greta, who was standing next to Roland. The young man looked surprisingly handsome in his new suit, but even better with that huge smile he was showing. "A warm welcome to all of you" she started, and some people actually smiled or chuckled at that. "I am happy to see that our idea to have a Yule Ball is so well received among Arendelle´s citizens. I hope you will enjoy the evening and the company. May the festivities begin" she said and wondered who had thought of this speech. Oh right, it was her. She should really consider bettering her speech writing skills. She stood in that spot for a few more seconds until everybody was occupied with something else and then went down the two steps to her friends. "Well done. Can we dance now?" Anna wanted to know. "Of course you can" she answered. Anna grabbed Kristoff´s arm and dragged him into the middle of the room. Henrik, Robin and Lotta joined them. "You look wonderful, Miss" Henrik told Lotta. "Oh, thank you" she said and blushed. "Her majesty was so nice to lend me one of her´s." "How benevolent of her majesty" he responded. "Indeed" Greta added. "How do you like my creation?" she then asked and looked at the three men. "It´s nice" Robin said. "Brilliant work" Henrik expressed. "You managed to make her look even more stunning than usual" Roland stated. "How very charming you are, doctor" Greta wondered. "Indeed. Thank you, Roland." "Your majesty, your majesty!" somebody shouted. "My uncle" Henrik exclaimed with as little excitement as possible. "He said you owed him a dance." "That´s incorrect, I told him I don´t dance and proposed he might dance with Anna instead" she explained. "Well, but then you can´t dance with anybody" Greta reminded her. "So if you don´t want that, you should flee now." "Your majesty, may I ask for the honour of this dance?" Roland asked just when the duke arrived. "You may" she replied and took his hand. "But, your majesty, I was the first one to ask for your first dance as queen" the duke got upset. "I am sorry, but you are too late" Roland insisted and she tugged him behind to where people were dancing.

"Mistletoe" Anna said. "You know what that means." Kristoff just looked at her. "Seriously?" he asked. Was he still grumpy? Because if he was she was probably really better off without him. "Yes. We hung them up all around the palace. People do that on Christmas, you know" she just replied. She didn´t say that she did it all on her own just to better the chances that they might stand under one of those together. And because it would totally annoy everybody else, especially Elsa. Kristoff smirked, leaned forward and kissed her. "So you have overcome your differences?" When they turned around, Elsa stood right next to them with a slightly smug smile on her face. "Yes, we are better at making love and not war." Anna only realised how wrong that sounded, for her sister in particular, when it had already left her mouth. She thought that in the future, she should definitely think before she started to talk. "I mean-" she stammered. "I think that is the wine speaking, or maybe the atmosphere, but today, I won´t hold you a speech about your inappropriate behaviour" her sister said casually. Anna and Kristoff exchanged some strange looks. That was most definitely the wine talking. Wait, wine? She didn´t even know her sister drank wine. "You drink wine?" she asked. "Yes, just like all grown-ups. But to be honest, only a few different sorts because the others are really not my taste" she explained. Okay, if she said so. "Lotta looks good I that dress of yours" Kristoff changed the subject. "Yes, and our dear friend the Viscount seems to think the same way" Anna said with regard to the girls dancing partner. "And by the way, I am really angry at you, Elsa! I had to dance with the duke at your coronation because you didn´t want to do so yourself, and now the first thing you do is grab science boy and dance like you did that a thousand times before. My feet hurt for like a week or something after the duke trampled on them!" Anna complained. "I am sorry, Anna, but things have changed since then. I have changed." Well, that did not changed the fact that the duke had trampled on her feet.

"Why did you want to speak to me alone?" Elsa asked. "Because I wanted to give you your present" Roland replied. "And I wanted that to be in private." He took the box into his hands. He had been searching for it´s contents for weeks, but then he was lucky. "What a lovely box" she said. The box was covered in a white snow flake pattern on a light blue ground with a blue bow on top. "Happy Birthday" he declared and handed her the box. "I didn´t know what you might want, but then I remembered those and, well-" he did not finish his sentence. "What is this?" the queen inquired with a puzzled look on her face holding up a piece of parchment. "These are the letters I wrote to you from school. I did not fully understand why I was sent away, I thought maybe your parents wanted me to go to school so I would become a suitable friend for you or something like that, and that I would come back when I had learned enough. So even when I knew you did not get these letters, I kept writing, hoping that maybe your parents would read them and see how much progress I had made. They gave them to my mother as soon as they arrived, but now that means that I can give them to you" he explained and looked at her. "It is not a very valuable present, I know but-" "I am sure this is the most valuable thing I will get" she insisted. "Dresses, jewellery, paintings, books, those things have substantial, material value. This has emotional value, which makes it just so much more dear to me. Thank you for the one birthday present I will surely never forget" she told him, and he was sure that it was the wine speaking (she really had ordered a good wine for the ball) when she kissed his cheek again, after more than thirteen years. "You are welcome" was the only thing he could respond to that.

It was the same situation, but the other way around, on Christmas Eve. This time it was Elsa who led Roland away from the others after dinner. "Where are we going?" he asked, feeling just slightly uncomfortable. "It is a surprise" she answered. "Your present for Christmas. I had to think of something very special, and I think I have succeeded." Where were they going? Why didn´t she just give it to him? "But-" he tried to say something. "Shush!" She held up one finger to her lips and ten turned around so she was facing a double door. "Here it is" she stated and swung the doors open. He felt his jaw drop. A laboratory. She had just given him a laboratory for Christmas. It was amazing and surreal at the same time. There were shelves with scientific books for research, a large table with the newest equipment for his experiments, a fully equipped desk something that looked like something between a bench, a bed and a sofa and a balcony with a telescope. "Do you like it?" she asked. "This is the most amazing, the most wonderful thing anyone has ever given to me" he stuttered. "How did you know about the telescope?" "Your mother told me" she admitted. "This is- I don´t know how I could possibly ever repay-" "You don´t have to. That´s what friends do, remember?" When he found out that Anna had gotten a cat, he really started to wonder about their relationship, just like everybody else seemed to do.

I know it´s not very long, but I had to shorten it a bit due to a lack of time. I hope you like it anyway, you can of course tell me whether or not you actually did in a review.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Back to normal?**_

"Elsa!" Anna burst into her sisters study. It was empty. Where the hell was she? She was not in her room, not in her study and not with her, so Anna had looked for her everywhere. She went out of the room. "Olaf?" she asked the snowman, whom she met in the corridor. "Have you seen Elsa?" He seemed to think about it. "Nope, not since breakfast" he answered. Who else could she ask? "You could ask Greta or Roland where she is, they went away together after you had left with Kristoff" Olaf told her. Kristoff had taken her out on a sleigh ride this morning and it had been great fun. No wolves, sunlight and it was even supposed to be winter, so it had been pretty amazing. "Sure, I´m going to ask them" she replied and he continued bouncing down the hall way. Should she ask Greta or Roland first? She didn´t even know where Roland could be, so Greta was the better choice. The princess had her own room not far away from Anna and Elsa´s rooms, basically just around the corner. Anna knocked. "Greta?" she shouted. "Yes" the other princess shouted back at her and opened the door. "What do you want?" At least she had the manners to let Anna inside, where it looked like some kind of gathering was going on. Roland and Elsa were sitting on a sofa, reading trough something, while Greta sat at a desk, drawing. "Elsa, I was looking for you!" Anna fussed. "Now you found me" her sister replied, still staring at that piece of paper. "Hello, could you at least look at me? I have been searching for you since I came back!" Her sisters indifference was really upsetting Anna. "What exactly are you trying to tell me? You are the one who left this morning and I am not obliged to tell you where I am going, not that I have been going anywhere, I didn´t even leave the palace. I do not see the problem you have, it must have been quite easy to find me" her sister stated and this time, she did look at her. "Okay, sorry" Anna said. "What are you doing?" "We are just going through some papers for the council meeting this afternoon" Elsa explained. "This afternoon?" her sister requested. "Yes, it is the last one this year" her sister responded. "But I wanted to-" "I am sure there will be enough time for that after the meeting, or tomorrow." Tomorrow? Really? Wow, rude. "Why are you all here, by the way?" Anna asked because Elsa usually prepared for meetings in her study. Alone. "Because Greta wanted to show us some sketches that she drew with the new pencils we gave her" the older sister said. Anna moved closer to the desk. Although she disliked Greta a lot, she had to admit that she was a good artist. Most of the sketches were of them at the Yule Ball, Elsa and Roland dancing, her kissing Kristoff, Robin and Lotta talking, Henrik listening to his Uncle, who was portrait just as ridiculous as he was, and so on, but also Roland in that stupid Elf dress up he wore for the children at Christmas and even one of Sven. "They look...nice" she said. "Thank you" Greta replied. "The meeting" Roland reminded them. "Yes, you are right. We will see you later" her sister excused not only herself, but also her friend. "Something is going on there, don´t you think?" Greta voiced just what Anna had thought.

"Gentlemen, I am glad to reassure you that we have indeed prevented a wast food crisis with the help of our 'friends' from Weaseltown. Is there anything else we have to talk about?" Elsa sat in her chair at the bed-head of the table in the council room. "Well, your majesty, there is one thing, it is not of much importance, but-" "What is it?" she demanded to know. "There is, it is really a joke, your majesty, there is a group, just a few youngsters, who call themselves democrats. You see, these people-" "These people want a democratic state, elections and maybe also, or even foremost, my head on a plate. I am very well able to understand that, Lord Halvorsen, thank you. Actually, I wanted to remind all of you that I am not any less competent or anything into that direction because I, unlike you, am a woman, a young woman, to be exact. That does not prevent me from being a good queen and a capable head of state and I wont let anyone treat me like I was a stupid child that needs to be controlled. I make my own decisions, you are here to give advise, nothing more, just like you did for my father. Am I understood?" "Yes, your majesty" came their replies. Alright, so this was done. She had had a feeling that some of these men were not taking her serious enough, which should have now been changed, at least she hoped so. "We would also like to know who this young man is, your majesty" another man expressed and the others nodded. "This is Roland Johanson, Court Scientist and loyal friend of mine. What else?" They were really nosey for men their age. "What are you planning to do next?" someone asked. "Arendelle needs drastic reforms both socially and economically, many things are not meeting modern standards, and I am determined to change that. It will include opening more schools, founding a university and cuts in the military budget" she declared. "But, your majesty, the military-" "Is absorbing abnormal sums of money when one takes the actual number of soldiers into account. I want to know where this money is going, why it is going there and then spend it on something more important, like healthcare or education." They all looked slightly baffled, only Roland was smiling. "You are now dismissed" she said and left, her friend right behind her.

"Who does she think she is?!" Lord Halvorsen asked furiously. "The queen, I guess" one of the other council members replied. "Which is correct." "Well it is also correct that her majesty is an arrogant little brat! What does she think she can do without our help? She has no clue how politics work, no experience, and she thinks she can just tell us off?!" "In fact she can tell us off, as you just saw" Lord Hagen stated. "We will see about that. We will see what she does when the revolution comes. Maybe she will ask her precious boy toy what to do. Or her friend the traitor princess. Or her stupid sister. Maybe one of them will have a splendid idea. And how dare she criticise how much money we spent, and what we spent it on. What has she been spending money on? New dresses for her sister, a fully equipped laboratory and a made-to-measure suit for her lover, pencils, paint, brushes and canvas for her girlfriend. Maybe someone should tell the peasant´s she is so fond of how much their queen spent on the food from Weselton and how much on Christmas celebrations and presents. They would stand in front of the gates swinging their pitchforks the very next day and then her majesty can face some harsh realities" Halvorsen ended his torrent of hatred. "If you really think that way, maybe you should leave the council, Lord Halvorsen" Lord Berg told him. "Because I think that you are wrong. The queen might be young, the queen might have no experience and the queen might be a bit bossy, a justifiable flaw for a person so young and in such an important position, but she will be a good queen someday, if she is not already." Berg was the oldest of the advisors, he had already been in the council when the girl´s grandfather had been king, he had seen her father become king, and he saw the parallels, he knew what young rulers were like, he knew they needed some time to get used to their new responsibilities.

"Since when do you have a dog?" Greta asked Roland with regards to the pup in his lap. "It is not really my dog, it´s just that most people could not feed their pets anymore so they ended up in the streets. I gave this little guy water and something to eat and now he is following me around. The orphans love him" he explained. Gosh, what a story. "Are you aspiring to become a saint or something? Is there anything charitable that you don´t do? You help poor people when they are ill for free, you spend your weekends with miserable orphans and you adopt homeless puppies, like, how can you even be real?" "Don´t be mean to him Greta" Elsa told her. "I am not mean, I just think he is too perfect to be true. Come on, tell us what your weakness is, your flaw" the princess teased. She would really like to know more about the young scientist. 'You have to know the people around you, who they are and what they want' her mother had once told her. 'That is the only way to be on top of the game.' "You don´t have to answer to that" the queen assured her friend. "Although I would be interested in the answer as well." If that would not make him tell then she didn´t now what would, as Greta was sure that he had certain feelings toward the blonde. Elsa, on the other hand, was not showing any signs of any sort. Maybe she liked girls, maybe she didn´t like romantic relationships in general, she would get that information sometime. "I am going to tell you, but don´t laugh, this is really embarrassing. Okay, so first of all I am afraid of lizards-" "Really? I´m sure there aren´t even any lizards in Arendelle" Greta threw in. "Greta!" Elsa silenced her. "And I am a really not into this fighting stuff, I can neither swing a sword nor handle a cross bow, which are considered things that men should be able to do. I am also not a good swimmer and I can´t sing" he admitted. "You can´t sing?" "Elsa!" Greta now said in the very same dispraising tone the queen had used. "I´m sorry, it´s just, never mind." "What? Is it a thing here that couples have to sing romantic duets or something? Because then at least one of you is screwed" the princess said. "Are you suggesting something when you say 'at least one of you'?" the queen inquired. "Just that I don´t know whether you can sing or not" she countered. "She can sing" Roland insisted. "And how would you know?" "Right, how do you know?" Elsa seemed to be curious about this as well, Roland blushed. "I heard you sing when I walked past your room and I- you know, you are very good, so I stopped and listened but then Karlsson came and shooed me away." Greta was very sure that only puppies should be allowed to be that sweet, certainly not young men. "Thank you, Roland" the blonde said. "I guess that answers your question, Greta. Now tell us about your flaws, if you don´t mind." "I don´t, actually. First of all I am terribly bold and audacious, of course, I am not too good at maths, lazy, impatient and slightly egocentric" she told them straight forward. "Did I forget something?" "Greta, that was impressive. Not many people accept their flaws just like that" Elsa voiced her thoughts. "Thanks for the admiration, but you are next, so- Just start talking" Greta told her to go ahead. "Really? Okay so there is the thing with the ice-" "That doesn´t count!" "Alright. So, I may be a bit bossy-" "May? A bit?" "Stop interrupting her, Greta. Go on" Roland said. "And maybe I am too strict with Anna. I am fluent in French but really bad in Latin, that language just doesn´t make any sense, in addition to that I am not quickly picking up on things, I am socially awkward, whatever that exactly means, and I hate horses." Greta burst out laughing due to the tone in which she said that last part. "Why?" she managed to ask. "Because I fell off of one when I was little" the queen admitted and looked at her sternly. "Sorry, I don´t mean to offend you, but you talk about this serious stuff and then the very last thing is 'I hate horses', it´s just-" So her best friends each had a strong dislike for a perfectly normal animal, nice. Not to forget the other issues. Not that Greta herself didn´t have any, but she learned to accept and deal with them. "I guess we are all going to swear that we are never going to tell this to anybody?" she closed the conversation. The two others nodded.

_On the Southern Isles, a young boy woke from his slumber at night. Someone was pressing a hand onto his mouth. When he opened his eyes he saw his mother, who looked concerned. "You have to get dressed, quickly and quietly" she told him. "Mother, what-? Why are we leaving in the middle of the night? Where are we going?" He pulled a shirt over his head. "Mother, you have to tell me!" he insisted. "Your brothers, they-" she looked around as if she was afraid someone could hear her speak. "They were fighting again, about the succession." "But father told them to calm down, didn´t he?" the boy asked worriedly while his mother stuffed some clothes into a bag and then handed him a cloak. "I am sorry, my darling, but your father is dead." He could see the tears roll down her cheeks until his eyes were filled with those as well. "Your brothers are preparing for war. Franz has already left to rally his allies, and so did Gerald, Nils and Fritz will support Johann, and god knows what the others will do." She took the boy´s hand and guided him trough the empty hallways. He understood that they were leaving because she wanted to protect him, but she didn´t answer his question about their destination. Finally, they reached a side door and stepped out of the palace. A stable boy was standing there, holding two horses. "Mother, where are we going?" Eduard whispered. "I sent your sister a letter immediately after-" She didn´t continue. "We are going to Arendelle." "Where the Snow Queen lives?" He didn´t know whether he was excited or afraid. _

AN: So, I finally managed to finish this chapter, it took me ages. I hope you enjoy it and if you do, or even if you don´t, tell me.


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